I almost, almost figured that song out by the last two words. So we'll try again in a few weeks. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Almighty God, you have built your church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Now I know that there are people who love history because they find history itself fascinating. But for me, history doesn't really come alive unless I think about there being actual people with actual faces and relationships being affected by the events in history. I thought Boo Boo did a wonderful job tying an abstract history to perhaps some of us to faces that we know and love and care about. And so the history seemed to make more sense or to be more real. Last summer, my grandfather gave me a book called Echoes from Vietnam, whispers of the disposable soldiers. Before that book, I knew my grandfather was in Vietnam and I'd heard a few stories, but when I read the note he left on the inside cover, a relatively abstract moment in history, all of a sudden became captivating. Here's what he wrote. Now he's country, so. Cephas. That's what he calls me. Bo Cephas, look it up. History. Vietnam is now history. I know you weren't a part of that, but I was. I'd like for you to read this book, maybe to get a better understanding of me and the way that I am. I can assure you that this period shaped my life and is a lot of why I am this way. I still relive a lot of the things I did and saw, but as I said, it's history and trying to move forward. You probably won't get any sermons from this, but you never know. It's a story about young guys just doing their job. Read the dust cover. He, speaking of the author, was a lot smarter than me. I was with the author for over a year. I was there and experienced everything he talks about, and in a lot of cases was only an arm's length away. Enjoy, granddaddy. Now it's been years since I've picked up a book that I absolutely could not put down, but after reading that note from my grandfather, every spare moment I had was spent reading that book because I knew that whatever I was reading, even if he was an arm's length away and not mentioned specifically, I was reading about my grandfather. Beloved, I think the key to unlocking our love for the Bibles is the same key that unlocked my desire to read that book. When we read our Bibles, we are reading history, yes, but history about our grandfathers and our grandmothers. History where even if he isn't mentioned explicitly, our Savior isn't more than an arm's length away. And so as we dive into a text today that is often treated in the abstract, my hope for us is that by grounding it in the history of redemption and showing that Christ is there. We won't get bogged down in the minutia, but rather be lifted up to worship the already ascended Son of Man. And so RCC, if you're willing and able, I invite you to stand to honor the reading of God's most holy word from Revelation chapter 13 and Daniel 7. And heads up, Daniel 7 isn't the Daniel that's in there in your text, so you might just hear God's word. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads, with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. And now Daniel 7. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. Four great beasts came out of the sea different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I looked and its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of man was given to it. Behold another beast, a second one like a bear. It was raised up on one side, it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and it was told to rise, devour much flesh. After this I looked, and behold another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back, and the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces and stomped what was left with its feet. As I looked, thrones were placed and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was like fiery flames, its wheels burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth out from before him and thousand thousands served him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. As I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given to be burned with fire and I saw in the night visions. And behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. This is the word of the Lord. Oh God, add your blessing to the reading and the hearing and the preaching of your word and grant us all the grace to trust and obey you and all the church said. Amen, be seated. Now if on the off chance that you still happen to be tracking with us through the book of Daniel after all of our gaps, you might be wondering why we're in Daniel 7 and not Daniel 5, since that's where we left off a few weeks ago. If you remember, we're going through the major prophets chronologically so that we can get it firmly in our minds that the prophetic and apocalyptic literature is rooted and grounded in time. All the prophets were prophesying about the events that took place in their day, and through those prophecies, God was preparing his people for their ultimate fulfillment at the end of the age when the Christ would come. That's how the New Testament authors understood prophecy, and that's how we should understand it as well. Once we get that settled, then when we get to Revelation this fall, it won't be a mysterious book that didn't make any sense for 2,000 years. Rather, we'll be able to see the same glories there that we see here, the fulfillment of all of God's promises in the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man. So that's why we're in Daniel 7 this morning. These events and visions happen before Daniel 5. And we're not going to have time to go all over those notes that you have there in your worship order, but there should be enough for you there to see that Daniel isn't laid out purely chronologically. Daniel 1 through 4 is relatively chronological in that we see there the history of Nebuchadnezzar's rise to power, his humiliation, and then his conversion and exaltation. Daniel 5 is situated in the book to tell what is essentially the opposite story to drive home the point. The one who humbles himself will be exalted, and the one who exalts himself will be humbled by God. As we'll see in a few weeks, Belshazzar, a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, rejects the faith of his forefather and profanes the things of God. So God takes his life and his kingdom and he gives it to another. But Daniel 5 isn't until 539-ish. Daniel 7 is about 14 or 15 years before and around 550 or 553, not in the last year of Belshazzar's reign in Daniel 5, but in the first year. Little background, since Nebuchadnezzar's death, Babylon has been in turmoil. Nebuchadnezzar had reigned for 43 years, a relatively stable kingdom, but since his death, there had been three other kings rise up. I'm gonna probably butcher these names, but his son, Nabu Shumukhin, who released Jeconiah from Babylon captivity, was overthrown about two years of reigning. His brother-in-law, Nere Glissar, murdered him and only ruled for four years before dying and having his son, Labashi Marduk, take over. Now that young king only reigned for two or three months before being deposed and killed in favor of Nabonidus, who was technically still king during the events in Daniel 7. Baal-Shazar was Nabonidus' son and he was raising, ruling in his father's stead because his father had been self-exiled after nearly being overthrown for trying to replace Marduk worship with Sin worship or the worship of the moon. Now if you notice, he wasn't trying to replace Yahweh worship. Because in just a few short years after Nebuchadnezzar's death, Babylon apostatized and abandoned Yahweh. Now, I know and hope all of that was confusing to you. I kind of want you to be confused at this point so that your head is kind of spinning and your bearings are kind of lost because that's where Daniel is. Remember, the theme of Daniel is that God is in control of kings and kingdoms. God raises them up and God brings them down according to his purposes. But when chaos abounds, God's people can lose their bearings. In all likelihood, as wise and brave as Daniel has proven to be and is, I can imagine that with all the chaos and the murder and the conspiracy theories, even Daniel is disturbed. After serving one king for 43 years, Daniel has seen four kings in seven years. And the king that was reigning now wasn't the king. Belshazzar was ruling as king under Naboditus, so I can imagine Daniel is unsettled. What's coming next? It's in this first year of Belshazzar's reign that Daniel begins to have dreams and see visions, with perhaps the most memorable ones recorded for us here in Daniel 7 and 8. Just as Nebuchadnezzar's dreams and visions, if you remember, troubled him, so too is Daniel troubled in seeing what he does. And can you blame him? Kids. Kids. I want you to imagine if you had a dream like Daniel. If you get nightmares from this, your mom and dad will let you sleep in bed with them tonight. Just blame Pastor Bo for telling you about Daniel's scary dream. Okay, I want you to imagine you're Daniel. You're in bed at night, all alone, and it's really dark. You don't even have a nightlight. It's that dark. You drift off to sleep. And when you open your eyes, everything is really windy. The four winds are attacking you from all sides, and you see the ocean and the waves crashing around, and four huge, scary, mutant beasts come up out of the water. The first beast is like a lion, but it has eagle wings. The wings are suddenly pulled off And the lion stands up on his hind legs and he starts to act like a person. You look around and there's another beast. It looks like a demon bear, like in X-Men with three bloody ribs hanging out of its drooling mouth. You hear a voice telling the hideous bear to eat flesh. Afraid, you look around and you see a third beast. It looks like a leopard with four wings and four leopard heads. And then you see another beast so scary that you can barely describe it. But deep down, you know that it's terrifying, it's dreadful, and it's strong. It has big iron teeth. And like the bear, this beast eats everything in its path, and it stomps whatever is left in its feet. This ugly beast has 10 horns, and then a little horn starts to grow, and there's eyes on it. There's a mouth like a person, and it grabs the other three horns, and it pulls them out of the head of the beast. And then it begins to say bad things about God. And that scares you even more than the beast. Now kids, if that's all you saw, that's a pretty horrible nightmare, huh? But that's not all you see. After seeing all of this, you see thrones in heaven, kings, There's a majestic figure with white robes and hair full of thick gray hair sitting down on a shiny throne with flames coming out of the wheels. It's almost like he's glowing. bright and fiery light is coming from his throne and more people and more angels than are even at a sports game, more than you can count, are gathered around and they're ready to see what is he going to say about what he sees. There are two books opened and that scary beast, the one that you couldn't even describe, The one that was so powerful and so mighty and overtook everything in its path, dead. The once powerful and scary beasts, they're not powerful and scary anymore. They're still alive when you see them, but now they're more like stuffed animals in your little sister's rooms. You think you're about to wake up, but then you see a person riding a cloud? Now he looks like a human being, but you know that he's gotta be more than just a human being because in Sunday school you learned that only God rides on clouds. He's so amazing that you can't help but stare. And you realize he looks just like the guy you saw sitting on that throne. He looks so much like that guy on that throne, you think that must be his daddy. He has a white robe and a golden sash around his chest. He too has a head full of white hair, though he doesn't look that old. It's thick as wool and white like snow. His eyes, too, are like a flame of fire, and his feet are like bronze, and his voice is amazing, like the waterfall. He's so powerful, he has seven stars in his hand, and his tongue looks like a sword, and his face is shining so bright. You're not sure where he came from, but you think he's the one that killed that beast. Because the way that he's coming up to that throne feels like a king is coming. And sure enough, that's what's happening. The ancient of days gives his son dominion over the whole world. He gives him glory. He gives him the whole kingdom. But you can't get the beast out of your head, because he's still kind of scary. And so you come to one of the angels and you say, what does all this mean? And he says to you, those four beasts, those are four kings that are gonna come out of the earth, but the saints of the most high of which you get to be a part of, you're gonna get his kingdom forever and ever. You're a prince and a princess. Even though that fourth beast was scary and that horn you saw looked like it was gonna win, the angel tells you that the fourth beast's not gonna win, he's gonna be killed. And that king, that good king is gonna take away his kingdom and he's gonna throw that beast into the fire and the darkness and he'll never bother you again. The angel tells you you can wake up now. And you can rest assured because even though those kings are scary, they're no match for the son of the ancient of days. You wake up and you know that that dream you just had was about Jesus. You know that he defeated Satan and sin and death on the cross and you know that he rose from the grave and he ascended to heaven and he sits there and he rules with his father. You know that was the dream you just had. And so you're not scared. Sometimes grownups ruin things. Things that should be majestic. Things that make your heart sing. Things that leave you not needing anyone to explain anything to you. Things that you accept as so simply and so obviously about Jesus that leave you excited to love him. Grownups have to mess around and take 20 minutes to explain. And so I'm gonna ask you to be patient with us because our faith is weak sometimes. And so I'm gonna ask if you'll be patient and let us wrestle through some of the specifics of this dream so that the grownups can believe like you do. Will you be patient with me? Okay. All right, grown folk. We gotta make this quick. This should be a relatively straight passage for us. But it's been made far more complicated than it has to be, especially over the last hundred years or so. And so we put for you, in your worship order, an adult coloring page that we call a chart. And so you can quickly see what most sermons on Daniel spend the majority of the time laying out. Hopefully they'll draw parallels to Daniel 2, but they'll spend the majority of the time emphasizing how the lion that has its wings plucked off before giving the mind of a man was the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon. They'll then explain that the bear is lopsided because the Persians became more powerful than the Medes and the three tribes or either Lydia or Media and Babylon or Lydia and Babylon in Egypt or even Daniel and Mordecai and Nehemiah. They'll go into great detail about the speed of Alexander the Great and the four generals who rose up after him explaining the leopard beast is Greece. And then, after doing that, most sermons that I've heard will spend the majority of their time breaking down how the fourth beast is Rome, and then they'll argue who they think is exactly the identity of the ten horns, the three horns, and the little horn, and whether or not there's a 2,000 year gap between verse seven and verse eight. And those are really fascinating. even important discussions. But those details are not the ones the New Testament authors draw from when referencing Daniel 7. The New Testament authors do not emphasize the beasts in Daniel 7. They don't give the beasts the weight and the glory. And so I would argue that neither should we, at least not when we're addressing the church. for New Testament authors, and I would argue then for us, the Son of Man should receive far more glory and far more attention than the beasts. And I believe when we put Him where He belongs, Daniel 7 becomes child's play. If adults and academics focused more on this son of man and they see where he ascended into glory and receives dominion over the earth, then they would know what kids intuitively know. Daniel's vision is about Jesus's life, death, resurrection, and ascension to the throne upon which he currently sits now. King Jesus. 28 times in Matthew, the title Son of Man is used, and it's in reference to Jesus. In fact, Son of Man, if we're going by quantity, is Jesus's preferred title for himself, especially when provoking religious leaders. Now if you're visiting with us, we don't usually run off this many verses in a row as we're about to, but because Daniel 7 has been so misused and pushed so far out into the future, I want you to see that we are not cherry picking when we say this prophecy was fulfilled during the times of Jesus and the apostles. Over and over again, Jesus told everyone who would listen and was going to be in his generation that they would see the Son of Man glorified. In Matthew 9, Jesus takes the title on him and says that he, as Son of Man, has the authority to forgive sins. And the crowds were amazed. In Matthew 12, he says, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. And that the Son of Man will be three days and nights in the heart of the earth before rising to glory. In Matthew 13, in talking to his disciples, he says, when they, meaning the Jews, persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For truly I say to you, you, my disciples, will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. In Matthew 16, again, to his disciples, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. In Matthew 23, after declaring seven woes, bowls, or trumpets, however you want to call them, upon the Pharisees and hypocrites, Jesus says, truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. And in Matthew 24, after leaving the temple and explaining a day was coming, When not a single stone of this temple would be left standing, Jesus sits down on the Mount of Olives and explains to his disciples what it would look like when the end of the age comes, which is this generation. They, the Jews, will deliver you, my disciples, up to tribulation and put you to death because of my name. then there will be a great trial come upon the followers of Christ. False teachers saying that they are me, they are not. As lightning comes from the east and shines from the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. The temple would be such that it would crumble down without a single stone left on another, and the Son of Man will gather his elect from the four winds, just like the four winds in Daniel 7. And then Jesus says, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until these things take place. And we could keep going for a while, but the kids are waiting, so we'll do just one more. In Matthew 26, after having been arrested for blasphemy, the high priest orders Jesus, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God. Jesus said to him, you have said so, but I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Did you catch that little phrase Jesus uttered at the beginning of his answer? It's tiny and huge at the same moment, from now on. From now on, they would see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Quiz. When would the high priest and the rest of those jokers see Jesus in power and glory? Right now. Not now. Then. Right? From then on. From the day they lifted Jesus up on that cross in 30 AD, and from the day he rose from the grave three days later, the Son of Man would reign in power and glory. It was in that day that the Ancient of Days granted the Son of Man all dominion, all authority on heaven and earth. At least that's what Jesus taught his disciples, is it not? Almost straight out of Daniel 7, 13 and 14, when appearing before his disciples in Matthew 28, Jesus says, all, in Greek, meaning all, authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, the Son of Man. And 40 days after he spoke those words, where did he go? He ascended into heaven and the clock started ticking. Now we could go over the big laundry list of the various times the apostles referenced Jesus already seated on his throne in the heavenlies, just like we did in Matthew, but we're not gonna do that. The author to the Hebrews sums it up quite well when again he wrote around 63 AD as the tribulation was beginning. Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son. whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, which, by the way, is exactly why Jesus, in Revelation 1, looks like the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Read Hebrews 2 if you want some more. Beloved, our Savior, the Son of Man, has not been in some holding pattern for the last 2,000 years. His authority wasn't put on layaway, for those of you who remember what layaway was before they had credit. Jesus hasn't been waiting to be exalted, waiting to receive the kingdom, waiting in some intermediate state between Daniel 7-7 and Daniel 7-8, while the devil has free reign over the world. Your Christ The Christ, the Son of Man, is alive and well. And just as we confess, every week the Son of Man ascended to His Father, as was prophesied in Daniel 7, where He is reigning right now with all dominion and authority. And that's good news! Because in Daniel 7, Daniel sees what Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel 2 when the stone became the mountain. In verse 27, after the Son of Man slays the beast, the angel tells Daniel that his kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints most high. That's you. Again, the apostle said this already happened. In their day, in Ephesians 1, Paul writes, God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. But Paul also says that God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Those thrones that are in the heavenlies where the King of Kings passes judgment on what is good and right and true is where you're seated now. You have been granted to sit in the heavenlies right now and this is good news not just for you. It's actually good news for the whole world. Again, in Daniel 7, we see that from the time of Christ's ascension until forever, his kingdom shall be an everlasting dominion, kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. All dominions shall serve and obey him through you. This is what Jesus was getting after after he declared that he had all authority in heaven and on earth. Because he has authority and reigns over all, the saints of the Most High are to go make disciples, baptizing and teaching the nations all that the Son of Man has commanded. Again, Paul picks up on this reality and commission. For just after what he said to the Ephesians that we read, Paul says the church is reigning so that God might show forth the immeasurable riches of his grace to the church and to the world. Beloved, just as inseparable as Babylon's reign was from Nebuchadnezzar's, Just as the Medo-Persians reigned because Cyrus reigned, and the Greeks reigned because Alexander reigned, and the Romans reigned because the Caesars reigned, so too, because the Son of Man has ascended and reigns, do you reign? Those beasts have fallen. And just as the gates of those kingdoms could not withstand the advancement of the kingdom of God, neither will the gates of hell be able to withstand the barrage the church is bringing upon them. The stone made without human hands crushed the nations of the earth. The son of man slew the great beast. And so just as that stone is turning into a mountain, There are other beasts yet to fall. And they're gonna fall through you. They're gonna fall through your children. They're gonna fall through your children's children until every enemy has been put under the feet of the already ascended Son of Man. And so until then, you need not fear any beast. For though they slay seven million innocents, 70 million innocents in 50 years, those beasts are but stuffed animals compared to our king. What a great privilege we have to come and dine with him soon. Let's pray. Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the Old Testament and for revealing him as the fulfillment of all these things in the new. Give us your spirit so that we might understand these words and the fullness of your truth as you have revealed him to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen.