As I said, it is good to be here. It feels like it's been a little while. A few people have already let me know that I'm a new person, which is only a half-truth. I have been here a few times before.
But I'm particularly excited to be back and among the family that we have here, and particularly because we're going to start a new series today that I think is quite significant.
All the Bible is significant, but this book in particular, I think, is at a really significant point in history.
So I'm excited for us to unpack it and help us understand God's plan in what is a difficult situation, I think, in history.
So how about I pray, and then we're going to get stuck into the book of Daniel.
Father God, I thank you so much for the chance to be here this morning. I thank you for your word.
Lord, I ask that you give us open hearts and minds this morning. I ask that you give me your words, that you'll enable me to speak your truth clearly and faithfully.
And Lord, I pray that the result of us meeting together around your word will be that we're changed.
I ask that your spirit would be shaping us as a result of this time, that we might be more like Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
Just before we do start, I want to encourage you, if it's not your habit yet, to make it your habit.
We're going to work through Daniel for the next, I'm not sure, I think it's about five or six weeks.
At some point in that time, actually have a read of the whole book for yourself.
It's only 12 chapters, so it's a manageable amount.
But reading it for yourself at home will mean that when you come here on Sunday,
you'll actually have a really helpful framework for the stuff that we're going to look at in each sermon.
Because we're about to drop in on what I think is one of the most significant points in history,
we can't just kind of drop in there and then try and find our bearings.
So we're going to do a bit of work really quickly to make sure we know where we are and what we're looking at.
So this might be old news to some of you, and if so, that's great.
But if not, this will help us as we go forward.
So I'm going to give you a quick, very quick history of Israel up to the point that we're looking at in Daniel.
So for those of you who remember, basically in Genesis 12, we've got God chooses Abraham as a unique person,
and he makes some promises to him.
He says he's going to make Abraham into a great nation.
He's going to give him land, and he's going to bless him.
From that point, we kind of see God looking after Abraham's kids and Abraham's grandkids and Abraham's great-grandkids.
And progressively, this nation starts to build momentum in terms of people.
We go through the whole Egypt incident, and then finally, after Moses dies,
this growing nation of Israel steps into the land of Canaan, which is the land that God had promised to them.
They've got to fight and kick everyone else out, but then eventually we get to King David,
and King David is the point where they've beaten their enemies, or God's beaten their enemies.
They're in the land that God promised.
They're a great nation.
They're blessed.
They've got the temple.
God's with them.
Everything's going fantastic.
And they're all feeling pretty great, like, you know, this is the good team to be on.
But along the way, the whole time from the very beginning, God has warned them
that if they don't remain faithful to him, if they turn away to any other gods,
there's going to be consequences.
And after David, which is kind of the high point in Israel's history, there's this progressive slip where they start to ignore God more and more.
They get just kind of comfortable because they've got everything.
They've got the land.
They are a nation.
They feel blessed.
They've got the temple.
They've beaten everyone.
And they start to take for granted God.
They start to ignore the warnings that he's given them.
And they start to think God would never take this stuff away.
You know, we're his people.
We're special.
And with the book of Daniel, they are about to get a rude awakening.
They're about to get a reminder of who God is and how God works.
And so are we.
So look with me at Daniel chapter 1, verse 1.
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 delivered Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of God.
These he carried off to the temple of his God in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his God.
So I've been watching the news over the last couple of weeks, and I'm sure that you've caught at least glimpses of this.
It's the biggest story in the world on Channel 9.
The Melbourne Storm saga.
What a fall from grace.
I mean, I've taken a secret pleasure in this because I'm an AFL fan.
So anything that damages rugby league is good for AFL, I figure.
But I wonder what it would be like to be a Melbourne Storm supporter at the moment.
I mean, this team that you love and that you support and that you're just so excited about, probably even a little bit cocky about, has just lost all credibility.
Everything they'd achieved, everything they'd worked hard for, everything they'd sacrificed for is gone.
The victories are gone.
The premierships are gone.
The popularity is gone.
I wonder if some of the Melbourne Storm supporters are looking for a new team to support.
I noticed on the news there was at least one supporter who walked up to the players' entrance at the Melbourne Storm's home ground,
took off his supporter jersey, threw it on the ground and walked away.
His unbeatable heroes are beaten, are fallen.
And I wonder if that's kind of how it would have felt for Daniel and Israel when this was happening.
They're watching the youngest and brightest men being carted off to another country.
They're watching the articles from the temple, the things they used to worship their God,
being shifted off to be used for some other pagan God in another country.
Their victorious land has been taken over.
Their great nation is now some pathetic little province of the superpower Babylon.
Their unbeatable God looks like he's been beaten.
Looks kind of powerless.
This Babylonian God and this Babylonian army seem to have overpowered what used to be an impressive God.
And I wonder how many people in Israel at that time were ready to take off their God jersey and throw it on the ground.
Were ready to find someone new to follow.
I mean, they signed up to be a great nation.
They signed up to get a land of their own.
They signed up for blessing.
And now it looks like that's all gone.
Now they're going to be servants of some foreign king.
Half the people are being sent away into exile.
And you have to wonder, if God can do something, why doesn't he?
And maybe you know what that feels like in your own life as well.
I mean, when you signed up to follow Jesus, it was great.
He was offering you forgiveness and a new life.
And there was people around you and it was exciting.
And, you know, you wanted to go to church.
You wanted to read the Bible and everything was fantastic.
But it didn't stay fantastic.
You started to realize that over time,
being a Christian doesn't change how many painful circumstances you face in life.
It doesn't change how hard life can get sometimes.
You still have to deal with people close to you, dying.
Maybe you've lost a job.
Maybe someone you care about a lot has given up on following Jesus.
And maybe you're asking the question,
if God can do something, why doesn't he?
You look around at the world, even beyond your circumstances,
you see suffering, you see poverty, you see famine.
And you start to wonder,
start to wonder, has God been beaten?
I mean, we'd never say that out loud.
We're Christians.
We believe that God's, you know, sovereign and in control.
But deep down,
where no one else knows,
do you ever ask the question,
is God still in control?
It'd be really easy to read this story of Daniel
and this book that we're looking at over the next few weeks
and kind of just skim through it and think,
oh, you know, oh darn, things have gone slightly amiss.
I mean, we've heard the Lion's Den story.
We've heard some of the stories of Daniel.
They're great Sunday school things.
But we need to understand how significant this situation is.
Israel is surrounded by a foreign army
in a land that they thought God had given them for good.
People would be fearing for their lives.
Some of the soldiers might have even died.
And now young men, as young as 12 or 15,
are being taken from their families
to probably never see them again.
God's people, God's nation of Israel
is effectively coming to an end.
And so you can understand
why they would be asking the question,
has God lost?
Is God beaten?
Is God still in control?
Plus, it gets even worse.
Have a look with me at verse 3.
It says,
Then the king, once they'd taken away some of the young men,
it says,
Then the king ordered Ashfenaz,
chief of his court officials,
to bring in some of the Israelites
from the royal family and the nobility.
Young men without any physical defect.
Handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning.
Well-informed, quick to understand,
and qualified to serve in the king's palace.
He was to teach them the language and literature
of the Babylonians.
The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine
from the king's table.
They were to be trained for three years,
and after that,
they were to enter the king's service.
Among these were some from Judah.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
The chief official gave them new names.
To Daniel, the name Belshazzar.
To Hananiah, Shadrach.
To Mishael, Meshach.
And to Azariah, Abednego.
See, not only have they been removed
from God's country,
not only has God's people been broken up
and separated,
not only have articles from God's temple
used for God's worship
been taken somewhere else to worship other gods,
these men are now going to be assimilated.
Nebuchadnezzar is going to make them Babylonian.
They've got to learn the language.
They've got to read the history books.
They've got to know everything there is to know
about Babylon and its culture
and its religion and its spirituality.
King Nebuchadnezzar is on a mission
to remove anything
that makes these men
distinctively Israelite.
Anything that makes them stand out
from somewhere else,
anything that makes them stand out
as belonging to God,
King Nebuchadnezzar
is going to break it away
and make them Babylonian.
And the hard part is
that there's something appealing
about what Nebuchadnezzar is doing.
I mean, sure, these young men
would have been devastated
by what was happening to them,
but it's a pretty good offer
they're getting when you think about it.
They're being offered education.
They're being offered positions
of prestige and respect
in the new Babylonian kingdom.
They'll be serving the king.
That's not lowly public service.
That's a place of significance in society.
They'll be receiving the king's food,
working in the king's palace.
We're talking quality meat, wine, fruit and veg,
and all they have to do
is give up on the God
who it looks like
has already abandoned them anyway.
In a foreign country,
it kind of feels to them like
the rules have changed.
Success and blessing
apparently doesn't come from God anymore.
It comes from doing things
the Babylonian way.
And you know what's funny?
I think our world's not that dissimilar to Babylon.
I mean, we would be forgiven
for thinking our world's not as hostile.
I mean, we live in a country where,
you know, it's fine to be a Christian.
It's pretty religiously tolerant around here.
As long as you don't annoy other people
with the fact that you believe in God,
it's fine for you to believe it.
In Sydney, and in Anglican Sydney,
we're, you know, pretty proud of the fact
that we teach the Bible well
and that, you know, we're really passionate
about finding biblical truth.
Here at St. Paul's,
we're one of six congregations
that are going to meet here today
and every Sunday.
There's a couple of other great
Bible-believing churches
within five or ten minutes from here.
And you could be forgiven
for, you know, starting to feel like
this is home.
This is where we belong.
But it's not.
The Bible makes it clear
from start to finish,
front to back,
all humanity
is at war
with its creator.
We are enemies of God.
By nature,
we're objects of wrath.
We deserve God's punishment.
And if you're following Jesus,
you need to recognise
that the world that you live in
is hostile.
Hostile to the one you follow
and hostile to you.
Whether you realise it or not,
you're in a process
of being slowly assimilated
into the culture of the world.
Every day you live in this culture,
you spend time engaging with people
who worship gods of self,
gods of money,
gods of success,
gods of nature,
and the world is trying to make you
like them.
Trying to remove anything
that makes you distinctively Christian,
anything that makes you stand out,
is now weird
and unacceptable.
One of the most popular books
over the last few years at least
is The Da Vinci Code.
Now, it's popular probably
for a couple of reasons.
It's pretty well written.
That's probably part of the reason
that it's popular.
But I think it's also popular
because the whole point of the book
is it's built around the premise
that Christianity is a big sham.
It's a big conspiracy
trying to trick people.
And so people love
to kind of just debunk those ideas
and kind of see Christianity
as the weird sideline thing.
So our society likes to make the norm
not believing in Jesus.
As we sit here,
there's a growing argument
in politics at the moment
as to whether or not young kids
should learn the Bible
at scripture in school.
Every day you watch TV,
read magazines,
drive past billboards
that make an effort
to display men and women
in a way that degrades them
compared to the way
the Bible shows them.
There is a relentless pursuit
for self-satisfaction
in this world.
And before you realise it,
you start to become
just like the world around you.
Before you realise it,
you start being less offended
by sexually explicit material.
Think about what it's okay
for you to watch on TV
compared to what was okay
to watch on TV
five years ago,
ten years ago.
Before you realise it,
you find yourself
rationalising the little lies
because that's a good way
to get ahead in life.
You're not lying on a resume,
you're just padding it out
so that you can get the job.
That's what everyone else does.
Unless you make a decision
to consciously fight,
to remain distinctive,
to stand out
as a follower of Jesus,
there's a good chance
that slowly but surely
you're going to move
in the other direction.
If you don't realise
that everything in this world
is working to make you
less like Jesus,
then it's going to succeed.
We are slowly being assimilated
by the culture we live in
and we're being convinced
to worship a whole bunch
of things that aren't God.
And there's no denying
that the power of
what this world is doing
is that it's kind of appealing.
Just like these young men
in Babylon had the chance
to be in positions of status,
had a chance to be
in the king's palace,
in our world,
it's the people who ignore God
who seem to do okay.
It's the people who lie
who get rich quicker.
It's the people who are dishonest
and self-absorbed
that seem to be, you know,
have the stuff,
have the things that are supposed
to make you happy
and at the same time
it's the good faithful Christians
that often seem to go
from hardship to hardship
or never get out of a cycle
of constant suffering.
Yet God calls us
to remain distinctive.
He doesn't call us
to leave a hostile world.
He calls us to remain here
but remain distinctive
as Christians.
In 1 Peter chapter 2,
just after the passage
that was read for us
in verse 11,
Peter writes these words.
He says,
Dear friends,
I urge you as aliens
and strangers
in the world
to abstain from sinful desires
which war against your soul,
live such good lives
among the pagans
that though they accuse you
of doing wrong,
they may see your good deeds
and glorify God
on the day he visits us.
God is calling us
to stand out for him
in a world
that doesn't want to know him.
And Daniel
is going to show us how.
Look with me at verse 8.
Daniel resolved
not to defile himself
with the royal food
and wine
and he asked the chief official
for permission
not to defile himself this way.
Now God had caused the official
to show favour and sympathy
to Daniel
but the official told Daniel,
I'm afraid of my lord the king
who has assigned your food
and drink.
Why should he see you
looking worse
than the other young men
your age?
The king would then
have my head
because of you.
Daniel then said
to the guard
whom the chief official
had appointed over Daniel,
Hananiah,
Mishael and Azariah
please test your servants
for 10 days.
Give us nothing
but vegetables to eat
and water to drink
then compare our appearance
with that of the young men
who eat the royal food
and treat your servants
in accordance
with what you see.
So he agreed to this
and tested them
for 10 days.
So in spite of the appeal
of what Babylon
has to offer
Daniel still makes a point
of saying no.
But he doesn't say no
to what you might expect
him to say no to.
He's already accepted
a name change.
He's already accepted
the training they've offered him.
He's already moved
to a new city.
But at this point
Daniel stands up
and says no.
Even with everything changing,
everything against him,
there's still a point
where Daniel says
I will not compromise.
But why is it this?
Why refuse meat and wine?
Why refuse a good feed
that's going to keep you healthy?
I mean,
he's accepted a new name
which is designed
to make him feel
like he belongs to Babylon.
He's studied
Babylonian literature.
He's probably even studied
Babylonian religion
and spirituality.
Yet food is the thing
that he will not
defile himself with.
Why?
Well,
there's no such thing
as a free lunch.
Have you ever been out
to lunch with someone
and, you know,
they offer to pay,
it's no strings attached,
it's fine,
they're just feeling generous
and you think,
great, fantastic,
I'll take it,
I'm going to go back
and order seconds.
But then,
half a week later
you get a phone call
and that same friend
needs a favour.
And suddenly it's harder
to say no
than it would have been
if you paid
for your own lunch.
Or every time
you see them after that
they just kind of remind you
that they paid last time
and you owe them.
There's no such thing
as a free lunch
and it was the same
for Daniel.
Daniel knew
that it wasn't just food
that the king
was offering him.
In the ancient world
receiving food
and receiving provision
from someone
like a king
was a way of saying
I'm your servant.
It was a way
of declaring your allegiance
to someone.
And so Daniel
accepted these other things.
He accepted a name
that supposedly
transferred him
away from God
because he knew
who he was
he knew who he belonged to
but he refused
to do anything
that was a willing
and intentional
step away
from his commitment
to God.
He refused
to do anything
that would say
to God
I'm now following
this person.
Daniel remains
distinctive as God
in a culture
that is doing
everything it can
to transform him
and there's two
things that we need
to grab from
Daniel's example
if we hope
to remain distinctive
in the hostile world
that we live in.
Two really simple things
simple to say
but maybe a little bit
harder to live out.
First thing
Daniel knows
when to say no.
Daniel knows
when to say no.
It's really interesting
that Daniel
puts up with all that stuff.
he puts up
with a new country
he puts up
with a new name
he puts up
with training
he puts up
with living
in this new culture
completely
in fact
he even uses
the training
that they give him
to serve
the Babylonian kingdom
he becomes
a significant man
in the king's palace
but there is a point
where he says no.
So I think
sometimes
the temptation
for us as Christians
is to kind of
hide away
from the evil world
that's around us
you know
we kind of look around
and we don't want
to get contaminated
by the pagan people
and their pagan hobbies
and their pagan TV shows
and their pagan movies
and whatever else
we kind of turn up
our nose
at the people around us
and think they're bad
and we're not
and we just keep saying no
and keep saying no
and rejecting all these things
and I think
you know
as Christians
we're almost too good
at saying no
but I wonder
if we get so preoccupied
with saying no
but everything in the world
that we're choosing
that we're missing
the things
that actually matter
see what we need
to learn from Daniel
is when
to say no
Daniel immerses himself
in this Babylonian culture
he doesn't hide in a tent
or hide under his bed
and stay away from anything
that might be remotely bad
he was happy to study
so long as it didn't compromise
his commitment to God
he was happy for a new name
because that didn't change
that he still loved God
he was happy for a new city
because that didn't change
that he still loved God
but he wasn't willing
to eat a meal
that would be his way
of saying
now Nebuchadnezzar
comes first
God is calling us
to be in this world
so that we can be a light
in it
but not of it
the challenge for us
is when do we say no
I mean
in church
we're pretty good
at rejecting culture
throughout the decades
church has worked
really hard
to keep certain things
from the world
outside
you know
some people fought
tooth and nail
to make sure
that the world's music
never made it in here
and drums
finally got in the door
a few years ago
some people
are still fighting
tooth and nail
to make sure
that the church
remains a pointy building
with a cross on the top
because you know
we don't want to
engage with the world's
kind of fancy
technological
air conditioned
comfy chairs
you know
the church is supposed
to have a pointy roof
and uncomfortable chairs
apparently
and
we fight for these things
and we say no
to these things
of the world
but at the same time
we're
embracing
other aspects
that are pulling us
away from Jesus
we're fighting
for things like
pews and music
but we're
progressively becoming
more self-obsessed
less servant-hearted
more sexually immoral
dishonest
we're doing less
and less
about injustice
and suffering
in the world
but hey
at least we don't
have the world's music
we need to let go
of what doesn't matter
we need to let go
of the parts of culture
that have no impact
on how much we love Jesus
in fact
sometimes we can even
use it
and that way
we'll be ready
to recognise the things
that we must
say no to
to recognise
the things
that will lead us
away from Jesus
the things that
compromise
the most important
person
the first thing
we need to learn
from Daniel
is when to say no
the second thing
God is always
in control
trust God
it sounds so simple
trust God
we always say it
to each other
things are tough
trust God
trust him
because he's in control
but you'd forgive
Daniel for
asking the question
has God lost control
wouldn't you
all these promises
land
great nation
blessing
seem like they're
disappearing
it seems like
everything's going
wrong
Daniel's in a
foreign country
and it looks like
God's lost control
but look
at the story
with me again
verse 2
the Lord
delivered
verse 9
God
caused the
official
verse 17
God gave
knowledge and
understanding
the single
most devastating
event in
Israel's history
was not the
point where
God lost grip
on the wheel
but it was an
essential part
of God's plan
for this world
this is God
keeping his
promise to
punish Israel
for being
unfaithful
and even though
Daniel couldn't
see what God
was doing
or how God
was doing it
even though he
didn't know the
details or the
specifics
he trusted him
because he knew
that God was
always in
control
someone once
told me that
my life was
kind of like a
puzzle piece
you know it's
kind of funny
shaped edges
doesn't make a
lot of sense
by itself
but when you
put it in the
puzzle
when you surround
it with all the
other pieces
the picture
becomes clear
and my
perspective in
life and your
perspective in
life is just
our little puzzle
piece
it doesn't
always make
sense why
it's that way
it doesn't
always make
sense what's
happening or
what God's
doing or how
he's doing it
but God can
see the whole
picture
and God has
designed every
specific circumstance
that you face
every event of
your life
every person you
interact with
exactly the way
he needed to
so that your
piece would fit
perfectly within
his plan for
creation
God doesn't
make mistakes
your life is
the detailed
work of a
master craftsman
who is achieving
his unstoppable
plan in his
world
you won't
always know
what God's
doing
you won't
always know
how he's doing
it or why
he's doing
it but you
can be sure
that whatever's
happening he's
doing it
he's still in
control
over the next
couple of weeks
in Daniel we're
going to get to
see a little bit
more about how
God uses an
event like this
exile to achieve
his purposes
we're going to
see how this
monumental fall
from grace
from the heights
of King David
to exile in
Babylon was
part was an
essential part
of God's
plan to
bring salvation
to the world
and even
though he
didn't know
what God
was doing
Daniel knew
God was doing
something and
so he trusted
him
God has
left you in
this world
hostile as it
is
God has
left you here
the question
is will you
trust him
will you
trust his
way even
though you
don't know
how it
pans out
God
our passage
today finishes
with a little
glimmer of
hope
well actually
it's more
than a
glimmer
it's kind
of like a
fog horn
for anyone
who hasn't
got it
yet
look with
me at
verse 15
it says
at the end
of the ten
days they
looked healthier
this is after
the test of
just eating
vegetables and
water
at the end
of the ten
days they
looked healthier
and better
nourished than
any of the
young men
who ate the
royal food
so the guard
took away their
choice food and
the wine they
were to drink
and gave them
vegetables instead
to these four
young men God
gave knowledge and
understanding of
all kinds of
literature and
learning and
Daniel could
understand visions
and dreams of
all kinds
at the end of
the time set by
the king to
bring them in
the chief official
presented them to
Nebuchadnezzar
the king talked
with them and
he found none
equal to Daniel
Hananiah
Mishael and
Azariah so
they entered the
king's service
in every matter
of wisdom and
understanding about
which the king
questioned them
he found them
ten times better
than all the
magicians and
enchanters in his
whole kingdom
and Daniel remained
there until the
first year of
king Cyrus
the chapter starts
with us asking
the question
is God beaten
are these
Babylonian gods
suddenly more
powerful
and it ends
with God
reminding us
that he is the
one and only
creator God
this is his
world and there
is none that
compares to him
the wisdom he
gives Daniel and
his friends is
ten times better
than anything the
Babylonians can
muster
and that little
verse at the
end
Daniel remained
there until the
first year of
king Cyrus
what would have
felt like a
devastating
life ending
circumstance
we just get
reminded here
Daniel lasts
longer than
Babylon does
this new
superpower
Daniel's there
when it
falls
Daniel gets
beyond this
disaster
by trusting
God
God's plan
never ends
in disaster
but sometimes
it's the path
by which he
leads us
to the purpose
he has for us
God is at
work in this
world
he has a
plan and an
unstoppable
plan
which culminates
in rescuing
his people
with Jesus
God is still
in control
whether you
can see how
or not
so trust
him
know when
to say no
and resolve
that you
will not
defile
yourself
that you
will not
assimilate
that you
will not
become like
the world
you live
in
God is
in control
so trust
him