3. The Super Beast and the Son - Faithfulness in Exile [Daniel] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

I invite you to grab a Bible and to turn with me to the Book of Daniel we as we go have halfway through the book now and we're at a really significant turning transition point this whole book is following the story of four friends but really one particular friend is kind of the lead of the group but there's four of them and they've all been there Israelites and they've been exiled to a foreign land a foreign city and the whole books about their struggle to remain faithful to their God while living in a foreign land while living as a minority group in a culture that is hostile to them in their way of life and so this I mean talk about themes that are significant followers of Jesus living in any any nation in the world but living in ours or at least in certain places you know in a culture like Portland that is open-minded to many many things but when it comes to the way of life of the people of Jesus there's a tension right there's a hostility that can open up towards followers of Jesus and so what does it mean to maintain faithfulness and to maintain hope a follower of Jesus is somebody who believes that Jesus is actually the king of the world and the Jesus is the king of Portland and does the life and culture of Portland reflect the fact that Jesus is the king of Portland yeah not so much on that one so what's up with that you know if Jesus is really the king of the world I really believe that like think of where the world attention is right now in terms of like world conflicts or something like that you just think of one part of the world the Middle East you know as as Iraq dissolves and Syria I mean just the sheer number of innocent people who have died because of the civil war in Syria and that's just one part of planet Earth I don't know if any of you read the headlines that came out in this last week of the highest homicide city with the highest homicide rate in America right now is the city of Chicago and 64 people were shot over the weekend in West and South Chicago just last weekend the great number of those were just people sitting on their front porches getting caught in the crossfire and and and you and I are crazy enough to believe that this is the kind of world where Jesus is actually king like how do you believe that how do you maintain that belief in and that hope it's hard enough to remain faithful to Jesus but much less to look at world events and to say that Jesus is king welcome to Daniel chapter 7 welcome to Daniel chapter 7 what this book has been about is these four individuals who maintain faithfulness and hope when there are no signs of hope on the horizon we opened the series and I'm just going to do a quick recap because we're halfway through the book and this chapter seven is a transition in how the book works we showed a Bible project video summarizing the book at the beginning we're not going to do that again but I thought just get the poster up here just a quick recap you guys with me I'm going to make you do it anyways I just wanted you to participate okay so here we go we've got our up in the upper left Jerusalem's conquered by Babylon all these Israelites taken as prisoners and the opening story set the theme and the tension you have Daniel is four friends and they they engage in life and Babylon they take Babylonian names they dress like Babylonians they get government jobs for goodness sakes so there's they don't closer away in their own little subculture they're fully engaged and as they try to remain faithful they hit these tension points where their way of life as God's people comes into conflict with Babylonians way of life and chapter one it was food and so they refused to eat the food of Babylon that would be a compromise for them and remember their lives were in danger because of that and but they maintained faithfulness and God delivers them and in fact they end up being elevated because of their faithfulness then after that chapter 2 we had this dream you remember that king of Babylon had this crazy dream about a statue and the statute was made out of all these types of metals and the statute represented the kingdoms of the world and a whole sequence of kingdoms that would go throughout history until one day a big meteorite comes and blows up statue and that meteorite grows into a mountain and that's a symbol for God's reign and rule over the world it will confront the babylons of this world after that we add another story chapter 3 the famous story about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego know that remember that one and they also won't compromise they won't give their allegiance to the idols of the Empire in the form of the statue and so they are thrown to their death thrown to the fire but God delivers them from death and they're exalted by the king of Babylon afterwards then we had two separate stories chapters four and five about two kings of Babylon and the father and the son and they're both arrogant and prideful and think that they rule the world and so God confronts them with dreams and visions and God humiliates Nebuchadnezzar who won't humble himself before God and so he becomes remember what does he become becomes a beast just tuck that away he becomes a beast and he goes and lives in the field and eats grass and has long claws and so he becomes an animal and it's only when he humbles himself before God's rule and reign over the world that he becomes human again contrast his son Belshazzar and he does not humble himself before God and so he gets assassinated that very day after this comes a story chapter 6 this was last week it's very similar to chapters 1 & 3 it's just Daniel and he refuses to pray to the God the king of the Empire as this he's a god he gives his allegiance and his prayers only to the God of Israel and so life's on the line he's also thrown to his death but not in the fire this time but to the beasts the Lions and God delivers him and he and he is elevated again that's the theme of the story and you can see there's a really cool literary design going on here chapter 1 is in the Hebrew language chapters 2 leading up to what we're reading today is in Aramaic a cousin language and the Aramaic section as this really cool design where this can you see it we tried to put it there visually the stories are paralleled in this really beautiful design 4 and 5 3 & 6 2 & 7 2 & 7 are both about dreams where there is a sequence of four that's the main flow of the dream except the person having the dream here in the storage in Daniel 7 it's not the king who's having a nightmare this time Daniel Staniel stages stages set how did you sleep last night some you don't have AC majority of you don't have AC how's it going for you did you have weird dreams heat could cause bad dreams sometimes um so just while you're reading just remember your dream could have been worse it could have been like this one go to bed like this one Daniel chapter 7 you guys with me okay in the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babylon Daniel had a dream visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed he wrote down the substance of his dream daniel said in my vision at night I looked and before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the Great Sea four great beasts each different from the other came up out of the sea the first was like a lion it had the wings of an eagle and I watched until its wings were torn off and then it was lifted up from the ground and it sit on two feet like a human and the mind of a human was given to it then before me was the second beast and that one looked like a I was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and it was told get up eat your fill of flesh and then after that I looked and there was another beast and this one looked like a leopard but it's a mega leopard perfect its def Leopard it's the intense leopard because look it's got four wings on his back like that of a bird and that has four heads given a source he to rule then after that in my vision at night I looked and there was in front of me a fourth beast terrifying frightening very powerful it had huge iron teeth it crushed and it devoured its victims it trampled underfoot whatever with the left and it was different than the former beasts because I had ten horns and while I was sitting there looking at the horns thinking about them like you would - there before me was another horn was little and then it came up among them and three of the first horns were uprooted before it and this horn had eyes like a human and I had a mouth that spoke boastfully okay let's stop I done the Bible so weird Huck so with this stranger than your dream last night I wager I wager that it is we can zoom in yeah there we go so just will help let this kind of guide us here this kind of visual summary of the vision here so for beasts for wild animals but you just you don't say they are a lion or a bear they're like a lion like like a four headed winged leopard right so clearly it's we're we're talking in terms of metaphor or symbol here and the fourth beast doesn't even get likened to any known beast it's the mega beasts which is super beast and the thing about this is just terrifying and trampled the needs and devours and horns and so on now so you might be weirded out about all this and that's fine a decent response to for the author and the readers of Daniel for Jewish readers whose minds are steeped in the scriptures this is this is all tracking your tracking with all of this this is all familiar type of imagery to you if your mind is steeped like Daniels was in the the poetry of the Psalms and of the prophetic writings in the Old Testament Scriptures you know already that when the prophets want to describe oppressive violent kingdoms they will turn to images of wild animals so just one example truly at random I could show you two dozen right now but here's just one from Isaiah chapter 5 where Isaiah describes the horror of the armies of Babylon coming for Jerusalem and he puts it like this he says the Lord lifts up the banner for the distant nations knee whistles for those at the ends of the earth here they come swiftly speedily their arrows are sharp and their bows are strong and their roar is like that of a lion they roar like young lions they growl and seize their prey and then carry it off with no one to rescue so as they had described the coming of Babylon like a pack of lions leaping out of the bushes grabbing somebody and dragging them off and no one sees them ever again it's like that this is stock imagery that would be familiar to you and so the fact that Daniel would have a dream about wild beasts you begin to like you know what he's talking about but these aren't just beasts the mega beasts the super beasts the fourth one what's he got growing out of his head these horns which is also a familiar image to you if you have a mind immersed in the in the Psalms and the prophets horns are a symbol of power and strength think like a bowl you know big horns and they're both you know they can do violence with them poke poke poke you the ball doesn't poke you with its horns right it runs you through so but it's also this the symbol of its power and strength so Psalm 75 just literally pulled at random I could show you many more passages talk about how God relates to proud horned the Lord says I've chosen the appointed time it is I who bring justice with fairness to the arrogant I say boast no more and to the wicked don't lift up your horns don't lift your horns against heaven don't speak so defiantly I will cut off the horns of all the wicked but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up so horns aren't in and of themselves bad right because the righteous can have horns that God will exalt because of their faithfulness but these people with horns that lift them up to heaven and speak defiantly against God you get it it's you get it on an intuitive level these images here and so Daniel like he's raised on this stuff and he's he's sitting in Babylon and you know he's been delivered from the Lions and things have worked out so far but you have to imagine like a guy gets tired trying to be faithful of Babylon and you know he here he works for the government and then he hears that babylons gone on another expedition and conquered another people group and destroyed their culture and he's you know how long is this going to go on I thought the God of Israel is the king of the world and I'm sitting here in Babylon and Jerusalem's lying in ruins and Babylon seems to rule everything and he has this dream about these violent beasts coming and all is a great train of beasts and they're horrible and the last one is the most violent and the most horrible verse 9 then I looked and Thrones were set in place and the Ancient of Days a great great image for the God of Israel he's the eternal one the king of time and history he came and took his seat his clothing was white like snow and the hair of his head was white like wool his throne was flaming with fire and its wheels were ablaze this is what I've come to call the God mobile it's AM it's a mobile throne chariot mobile yeah flames like hot red all right so and a river of fire was flowing coming out from before him and there's thousands upon thousands attending him right these angelic attendants and service ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him then the court was seated the books were opened so you have you have all these beasts who seem to run the world and they're violent and especially this last most horrible beasts horned proud and and then God shows up as king and his judge and it's as this image of God arriving in his royal power as the Creator and he comes the courts it's like a big courtroom and God's going to bring justice on the Beast and so the books are opened and what happens well I continued to watch verse eleven because of the boastful words that the horn was speaking and I kept looking until the beast was slain its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire now the other beasts had been stripped of their authority and were allowed to live for a period of time then what happens to the Beast is it found guilty or innocent guilty and what's its sentence destruction then in my vision verse 13 at night I kept looking and there before me was one like a son of man yeah a son of man now you might have a little footnote there kind of explaining to you this interesting little phrase the Hebrew word for Humanity or man you've learned it before pop quiz a Dom Adam yeah Dom now is this part of the book written in Hebrew it's not written in Aramaic what's the Aramaic word for humanity a Dom or a so as a trick question Hebrew and Aramaic their cousin languages like French or Spanish suits this is shared word between the two languages cuz there's no way you would know that but I was unfair of me anyhow pop quiz so the son of Adam it's a phrase that just means a human one so amidst all of the beasts all the beasts there and the mega beast was trampling and devouring everybody and beast is sentenced to destruction and then after the beef a sentence of destruction we discover that there is a human one there apparently as we're going to see he was among those who were trampled destroyed by the Beast but there's a human one there now that he's Daniel sees and this human one came with the clouds of heaven and approached the Ancient of Days is this image of ascent the human one is exalted on a cloud up into the presence of the Ancient of Days and the human one the Son of man was given Authority glory in sovereign power all nations and peoples of every language worshipped this human one his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion that won't pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed I guess done now um who okay let's pause so get our bearings again who'd what do you think these beasts are images of given what we know about the image of wild animals in the profits they're going to be kings or kingdoms or something like that and these horns Rider images of wicked prideful people or the people who lead these kingdoms so if they are if they represent Kings then this human one is also this symbol or images of some kind who's that all right so the a whisper of Jesus just swept through the whole room as good instinct good instinct and I agree with you but we have to take a couple steps to get there but but here's one fun fact and use it to get together this Friday night Jesus most people if they want to use Jesus's name as a as a curse word right they'll say Jesus Christ the Christ is not Jesus's last name was it born to Mary Christ right so it's a title to title that means Messiah King anointed king and Jesus accepted that title it became one of the main ways that early Christians came to refer to Jesus interesting fact however Jesus never used that title to describe himself he allowed it allowed himself to be called by that title but he never used it of himself Jesus used a much more interesting title to refer to themselves he does it all the time if you read the stories about him and what is that title the son of man where did Jesus get the title the Son of Man to call himself that all right we just reading it why did Jesus call himself by the title of this human figure who's been trampled and destroyed by the Beast but then once the beast is destroyed he gets vindicated and exalted to share in God's rule over the world Jesus chose that title to describe himself and what he was all about why let's keep reading verse 15 so I Daniel was troubled in spirit and the visions that passed through my mind they really disturbed me like they would you too so I approached one of those standing there remember there's thousands and thousands of these angelic attendants so he goes up to one he can interpret the Kings weird dreams but he can't interpret his own so we have to go to this other being who's there and I asked him the meaning of all of this he told me and gave me the interpretation did you just get a summary right here of the whole thing the four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth anybody surprised no we knew that already that these were going to be symbols for kingdoms and kings so the beasts represent kingdoms and kings what about the Son of Man but the holy people were the Holy Ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever yeah that's right forever and ever if the beasts are kings and kingdoms according to the angelic interpreter who or what is the human one a symbol for the holy people God's holy people this stop and think about this so you have a dream about God's faithful holy people getting trampled and persecuted and destroyed by the Beast and then right when you thought it couldn't get any worse the beast gets judged and destroyed and it's arrogant Kings or sentenced to destruction and God's holy face of people are exalted and vindicated to the place of authority can I think of a book in the Bible were there stories about God's faithful people who end up under the authority of a beastly Empire and they're persecuted and they're destroyed and they're even killed or they're tried the Beast tries to murder them but God's vindicates them from the Beast and gives them a place of authority can I think of a book of the Bible that has stories about that kind of thing all right it's called the Book of Daniel and it word out Daniel chapter one Daniel chapter 2 are you with me the stories about Daniel this vision first and foremost it's a story about the experience of Daniel and the friends who become these models of God's faithful people and Daniel sitting there in Babylon and he's wondering how long are these beastly kingdoms going to destroy God's world and destroy innocent people and he has this dream that in essence tells him not forever not forever the time will one day be up for these beastly kingdoms and God will exalt his faithful people and he'll deliver them from the Beast and exalt them to a place of rule over the world you guys with me now if you're wondering why I didn't say Jesus just hang tight let's finish the dream verse 19 so I wanted to know the meaning of about that fourth beast cuz he was different than the others he was so terrifying with his iron teeth and bronze claws the Beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left and I also wanted to know about those ten horns on its head and about that one horn that came up and three other horns fell before it because that horn looked more imposing than the others that have eyes and a mouth and spoke boastfully and as I watched that was the horn that was waging war against against him against the human one right in the vision but he swaps into the place of the human one who it refers to the Holy Ones God's holy people so the horn was waging war against God's holy people defeating them until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the Son of man the holy people of the Messiah and then the time came when they possessed the kingdom what's that all about Daniel asked the interpreter he gave me this explanation that fourth beast is a fourth Kingdom that will appear on earth it will be different from all the other kingdoms it will devour all the land trampling crushing the ten horns are ten Kings who will come from this kingdom after them another King will arise different than most Kings he'll subdue three kings he'll speak against the Most High and oppress the Son of man the holy people he'll try to change the set times and the laws and the holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time times and half a time it's a good album title for something so as a cryptic way that could either mean a year one year two years half a year three and a half years ie or it could be something more cryptic and symbolic for a short period of time what the debate about that but nonetheless the Son of Man figure won't be trampled and destroyed forever because the court will sit and the beasts power will be taken away he'll be completely destroyed forever then the sovereignty power and greatness of all the kingdoms of a new heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High his kingdom will be an everlasting Kingdom and the rulers will worship and obey Him and that's the end of the matter I Daniel was deeply troubled by my thoughts my face turned pale he lost his coloring and I kept the matter to myself because you go around sharing that kind of dream with other people and what are they going to think about you that you had Chipotle before you went to bed or something like that I don't know there you go that's it how you guys doing so here's the deal you know we come to the Sunday gathering and all kinds of stories that we bring with us of joy stories of pain or loss or confusion and we come to meet together as Jesus followers we come to take the bread in the cup to hear from the scriptures and we come and we hear an ancient story about a guy's bad dream what does this have to do with anything remember the whole Book of Daniel is about about fostering hope among God's people but despite the fact that God's when God's people are faithful they'll always be a minority and they'll always be in tension with the culture around them that will be hostile to their beliefs in their way of lives and this dream strange added it is to you is a way of fostering hope and you can probably see how it does that it just does it in a way that feels weird to you because of the mega super horn beast you know but that's what this is about this is about Daniel looking out at the beasts of the world which are these collective kingdoms right full of people who ruin and destroy each other and who destroy God's good world in the innocent suffer and die and what's goodness to him just the bottom line is that it's not going to last forever God won't tolerate forever what humans do to each other and do to his world there comes a moment it becomes Daniels hope that God will bring his justice and that he'll sentence the beast to destruction and that he'll vindicate his faithful people who have suffered and allow them to share in his of the world it's the bottom line you guys with me now but there's more to it than that has a lot more detail um a lot of numbers Kings and three horns and three and a half years and what is all this refer to so let me make a short story boring because you could read a whole library books about different views on what this refers to there are some people who are really smart they respect a lot who think that all of this the mega super horn beast refers specifically to the Train of kingdoms that comes from Daniels time period starting with Babylon so Babylon being the lion the Persians that came after the Babylonians being the bear and then the Greek kingdom of Alexander the Great being the Megane four-headed leopard def leppard right and then and then the super mega horn beast in this view refers to the Kingdom of the Syrians about a hundred and sixty years before Jesus the Syrians came and inherited what was left of Alexander's the great's kingdom that he divided up over the land that we call Israel Palestine now and and he was a really horrible person and this he he brought on to the city of Jerusalem the greatest persecution of the Jewish people that they had ever known up to that point yet he conquered Jerusalem Antiochus is the name of the king and he actually made it illegal to practice Judaism in Jerusalem he cleared out the Temple in Jerusalem and filled it full of idols to his gods and then he B actually began to to murder and torture Jewish people in the temple courtyard people who were still gathering in their homes to read the Torah and keep the Sabbath and and so on and he stopped the sacrificial system he stopped the calendar of Passover and so on so there are lots of people who think that that is the set of events that this is this is referring to there are other groups of really smart people that I respect many of them at least and they don't think it refers primarily something in the past they think it still refers to something yet to happen in the future even from our point of view namely a set of events that will happen in and around Jerusalem that's the prelude to Jesus returning and so a new kingdom of Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem there's a new temple being built that doesn't exist right now because the Dome of the rock is there in Jerusalem and that somehow that's all going to be returned and restored and then some mega super horn beast Antichrist is going to come and try and take over the world and that Jesus will return and wipe them out so on so that's that view there's a really distorted screwed up version of that view available in bookstores near you called the Left Behind series or movies that feature Kirk Cameron that I would never never recommend that you watch but all the same so some of you some of you know these views what are the two main views that are out there it's that somehow these are pointing towards which one of those is right I'm actually I become less concerned with that question over time and the reason why is because what I'm most concerned with is how Jesus read and understood this chapter of his scriptures because Jesus used the title from this chapter to describe himself do you think this chapter is important to Jesus if he the title he used to describe himself was drawn from it and what's interesting is Jesus quotes from and uses language and imagery from Daniels dream here multiple times you can go look them up for yourselves but there's one that's really telling and that I think invites us to see how Jesus read and understood this chapter and it's not actually either of these views it's the story of Jesus's trial when he gets arrested by the leaders of Jerusalem and he's he's arraigned and sentenced on completely false charges and here's the scene right here and just read it for yourself then those that arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest in Jerusalem where the teachers of the law the elders had all assembled the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin we're looking for false evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death okay let's just pause real quick here among the leadership of Israel who's represented here you could say that who's not represented it's everybody right it's the high priest the most powerful individual at that time in the city of Jerusalem and you have all of the chief priests right his cabinet then you have the elders who are elders and villages and towns and then you have the Sanhedrin who is like their la corte it's the whole government it was represented there before Jesus and what are they going to do they're going to execute him on what they know to be totally false charges so the high priest said to Jesus I charge you under oath by the Living God tell us if you're the Messiah the son of God and he's so great typical Jesus you said so I don't know you said so usually I'm the Messiah I guess I'll tell you who I am Jesus says here's what I say to all of you from this moment on you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven and he just doesn't say anything else the rest of the the rest of the trial do you get it Jesus sees very the cookies are not on the bottom shelf here you guys he's really nuanced he's in a room full of Bible scholars and he quotes from Daniel 7 right at the key moment there so think of it this way if I let's say it's the Star Wars convention right right and listen I would say I walk into the Star Wars convention and I wear a black helmet and I'm carrying a red lightsaber and I go around saying to people I'm your father now if I'm in a Star Wars convention do I have to tell you who I'm acting like you know say Who am i acting like Mac and like Darth Vader okay do I have to end if I say to you I'm your father do I have to tell you who I am treating you like who am i treating you like like your Luke do I have to tell you that no of course not it's a Star Wars convention we're gonna we're gonna cigs all right Jesus is in a room full of Bible scholars they're gonna sentence him on completely false charges what did he do he went around announcing the kingdom of God he went around healing sick people good news for the poor inviting them to these feasts and parties he would throw and he did have harsh words for the people sitting in that room about how they'd abused their positions of authority and distorted the people of Israel but he wasn't a military threat to them he never threatened to bomb anything and so here they are they're gonna they're going to Trump they're going to find murder charges right these trumped-up charges that don't they're not real they know it's a sham he knows it's a sham and what he says to them is the moment that you sentenced me to death is the moment that the son of man is vindicated from the Beast and exalted to sit at the right hand of God who was Jesus implying that he is the human one the son of man who is Jesus he doesn't have to say it because they're all Bible nerds it's just very clear whose genes saying the high priest of Israel is the Beast of course who is Jesus saying the chief priests and the elders in the sand heat the people of Israel have become what the Beast the mega super horn beast Jerusalem has become Babylon to Jesus apparently in Jesus is mind Daniel 7 isn't the kind of thing that is just a single promise waiting a single reference in the past or a single reference in the future in Jesus's mind apparently Daniel 7 is like a set of clothes it's a type of humanity it's a type of Kingdom and a type of person that almost all humans and all human kingdoms eventually become and so at the moment he faces the corrupt violent self-protective fear and and murderous intent of his own people he just calls it like it is you're the Beast and you're about to destroy the Son of man Jesus sees himself as the one faithful people of God and he claims that in himself he is actually embodying and being the only faithful Israelite and that the rest of Israel has actually given in to the way of Babylon and gone the way of the beast that it seems to me it's very clear of what Jesus is doing with Daniel chapter 7 which means this that these dreams in these prophecies aren't just about one thing this is a way of talking about human history and in these beast images they're a way of talking about the human condition because apparently from Jesus a point of view anybody can become the Beast so stop and think about that for a second what what is all this beast imagery about so I just I spent a week in the Grand Canyon checking through the Grand Canyon over the last week it's amazing and you should do it and I spent a lot of time thinking about the relationships between humans and beasts there's a lot of beasts in the Grand Canyon and the the most exciting encounter what doesn't sound exciting but it was exciting in the moment was in the middle of the night we had to get up early to make a big climb the next day and at midnight a family of skunks came through our campsite it was a mama skunk and two separated from her baby three somehow they got on the other side of our camp and the mom was convinced that the only way to ground up her family was by going through us we weren't in tents or anything just you and a friend started throwing rocks at it was really bad it's a really bad situation anyway I'll tell the story another time all that to say well let's say what beasts what's the difference between a human and a beast well there's lots of differences but there's lots of similarities to beasts wild animals there they are pure instinct aren't they just pure impulse you don't have to convince a mountain lion to go find food when it's hungry and you don't have to like reminded of the time of year when it needs to go find a partner and reproduce and so on like they're just driven they're like programmed right by instinct and humans are also driven by impulse and instinct aren't we but I think you we would all agree whether you're religious or whether you're not religious we would say a really flourishing mature human being is actually a human that is not driven purely by instinct or impulse I think we would we would say that someone who's truly human is somebody who can check their impulses who has self control over their instincts because of beasts if you're sitting in front of a mountain lion just try and convince it not to eat you it doesn't care and it won't feel bad once it's nying on your rib bones you know I'm saying it just doesn't care but humans should care about that I think we all agree like a human can't do that to another human and not care there's something really really really wrong about that right humans have this thing we call consciousness and a moral conscience and and we know that the best version of human beings are human beings who can control their impulses and instincts and live their lives in a way so that for me to survive you don't have to lose but I can check my impulses and actually do things that will be for you they may not be the best for me and it may not be the best for what I want in this moment but I'm going to do it for you anyway so that we can flourish together as human beings as humanity it's an ability to be others centered by checking your impulses and so Daniel all of these depictions of beasts there's this is the Bible's vision of the human condition when human beings reject God's authority over them when we reject God's definition of good and evil when we exalt our own desires and impulses and appetites to divine significance individually and collectively something horrible happens to us we become beasts we become beasts driven by pure impulse and desire and self-preservation and so these collective kingdoms right think of how a kingdom or a nation of people operates and for it to live in security it has to do it somehow at the expense of other people I wonder if I've heard a story of that anywhere in human history and so what Jesus what Jesus does he stands before his own people his own people have become the beasts somehow they think it's actually in Israel's best interest that an innocent man be put to death how beastly is that and so Jesus sees all of human history is this one long string of beasts and Jesus believes that he's here to conquer the Beast to defeat it yeah and what he actually says in the courtroom right is that the moment that you defeat me is the moment that I defeat you did you catch that he said the moment that you sentenced me guilty and to death is the moment that I am exalted and vindicated as king of the world Jesus believed that he would conquer the Beast by letting the Beast conquer him because what what can the Beast do to you what kind of mountain lion dude if you can't convince it not to eat you it can kill you it'll take your life and it won't even feel bad for it but Jesus somehow has a view of the world and of God where he's able to look the mountain lion in the face and say all you can do is kill me that's all you can do you can't separate me from God's love and your ability to kill me can't separate me from the fact that God is committed to rescuing and redeeming this world and bringing it into a new creation the resurrection Jesus could stare the beast in the face and call it what it is and know that it will use the only weapon that it has just selfish impulse self-preservation kill and Jesus says that's all you got that's fine do what you need to do and Jesus clearly liked this chapter is what filled his mind it's what gave him hope to confront the Beast and there's a beast without it's the collective beast that Jesus is confronting but all that is is a blown-up version of what happens inside of each one of us and so here's where I want to want to land the plane because what on earth are we supposed to do with this but you can see how important this is in in in the Bible's point of view from Daniels point of view from GSA's point of view what what's fundamentally wrong with humans is when we reject God's rule and authority over our lives we become less than human and there's the beast without when we all get together and then there's the Beast Within that just gets magnified would we form nations and kingdoms and I don't I think intuitively you can you know what this is talking about like you know you know the moments in the last seven days even where there was a choice in front of you about how you were going to respond in a moment and you have an instinct right you had an impulse and a desire that was selfish and you would benefit from it but you knew it was wrong and and every single one of us right we do this all the time and then we we give in to the beast right we we become beasts driven by appetite and by desire and by impulse and in those moments we become less than human we lose our humanity and Jesus is very clear like from her way he used Daniel 7 he's here to confront the beast because the beast has to die the Beast has ruined God's good world enough the beast must be destroyed and so he comes to to defeat the beast by letting the Beast defeat him Jesus died as for the Beast Jesus becomes what we are so that we can become what he is and as we die to the beast inside of us that's what it means for when Paul the Apostle says when we take the bread and the cup we are sharing in the death and the resurrection of Jesus we're allowing the story of Jesus's death to the Beast and his resurrection by the love and power of God to become true of us and when our life is joined to Jesus's life we become new and different kinds of humans and if your experience is anything like mine it's a very conscious effort every single day to keep the beast down all right and to keep it in check and by the love and the power of Jesus by the empowerment of his spirit that's precisely what it means to follow him and so that's what Daniel 7 invites us into and advise us to see how the Beast has ruined the the Beast is what killed Jesus and it's inside all of us and we contribute to it and we participate in it all the time and despite that fact Jesus has confronted the Beast he send it sentenced it to destruction and he's committed to rescuing people with his life and with his love amen so here's what I would encourage you to do as we go into worship is just to allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind these moments in these decisions from the last seven days from the last month whatever moments where where you made a choice and you behaved in a way that was less than human less than the human that you know God has called you to be and to bring that at the knesset and sued to recognize as that is precisely the part of you that died with Jesus as he died to the beast on the cross and then as we worship and as we sing to trust in the power and the love of God that he's committed to you and committed to making you into a new and different kind of human as we go out into our week that's what this is about amen amen let me close in a word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 52min 14sec (3134 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017