Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20020331.htm

DANIEL: HOPE FOR TODAY'S DISILLUSIONED YOUTH
Part XII: Shifting Our Hope From THIS Life To The COMING One
(Daniel 10:1-21; 12:1-3, 12)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Due to the times in which we live, many are going to Church this Easter Sunday looking for true "spirituality":

(1) The April, 2002 issue of Reader's Digest magazine has an article by Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Tom Hartman entitled, "How Do You Find God?" It details how current traumatic national events have left many Americans looking for spiritual meaning in life:

(a) They report our culture has been shaken by the September 11 terrorist attacks and "the dishonesty [at Enron] that wiped out more than ten thousand 401(k)s," Ibid., p. 97.

(b) They state a new question "materialistic yuppies and workaholic careerists" have started to face is "Was your life before September 11 really working for you?' To many, the answer is no." Ibid., emphasis ours.

(2) Another article in the same magazine by Lindsey Crittenden entitled, "A Skeptic Starts to Pray" reported how she entered a church thinking, "This isn't for me" only to find the minister speaking "about being open, about intimacy" that caused her to weep. The need for true spirituality is just below the surface in many hearts this Easter Sunday!

(3) Then, to add to this injury, we have all been dismayed at the reports of gross immorality by priests, and how it has led even to the possible closings of some parochial schools to pay law suits to children abused by these ministers. Many wonder where they can now turn for spiritual guidance and hope when ministers they once trusted as God's messengers have so badly let them down.

(4) Then, speaking of ministers, the mentally unstable Andrea Yates who has been convicted of drowning her children to keep them from hell reportedly derived her belief with a mixture of her own mental problems with the overbearing influence of a self-proclaimed minister. The violent loss of young lives is the result!



In view of our plight as a people in coming to grips with oppressive religiosity, oppressive greed in the marketplace and the oppressive misconduct of "men of the cloth" in the ministry, WHERE and HOW do we find "true spirituality"?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "THIS Easter I'm looking for TRUE spirituality: September 11's terrorist attacks, the crash of 10,000 401(k) funds due to greedy corporate mismanagement and abuses by the clergy have left me seeking TRUE spiritual fulfillment! Where can I NOW turn?!"
  1. When the prophet, Daniel wrote Daniel 10, he experienced the same KIND of SPIRITUAL needs WE face in TODAY'S world:
    1. Daniel was distressed over the evil Gentile oppression of his people:
      1. Daniel 10:1a records the events of this chapter occurred in the 3rd year of Cyrus of Persia, or in 536 B.C., cf. Ryrie St. Bib., KJV ftn.
      2. At this time, though Cyrus had decreed Hebrew captives could return to rebuild their land's ruins, those who had returned were oppressed by neighboring Gentiles, cf. Ezra 1:1-4 and Nehemiah 1:1-3 with Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn., Nehemiah 1:1.
    2. Daniel was dismayed over the spiritual lack in his people:
      1. Though 2 years had passed since Cyrus' decree for the Hebrews to return to their land, only a few had wanted to return, J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible, vol. 3, p. 590.
      2. Also, the spiritual state of the returned exiles was low: prophets Haggai and Zechariah 16 years later wrote of their materialism (Hag. 1:4-6), unbelief in God (Hag. 2:1-9), sin in their high priest (Zec. 3:1-3), greed (Zec. 5:3) and artificial religiosity (Zec. 7:1-3).
    3. Bothered by such facts, Daniel prayed and fasted for three weeks in search of God's insight and encouragement, Daniel 10:1b-3.
  2. To help Daniel, God exposed him to angelic conflict and delivery from it to IMPRESS him to SHIFT his HOPE from the PRESENT, CORRUPTED life to his COMING glorious RESURRECTION:
    1. God allowed Daniel to experience a symbolic death in suffering:
      1. He allowed his angel to be delayed by a strong demon to deepen Daniel's physical and emotional weakness, Daniel 10:2-3, 12-13.
      2. When the angel arrived, his humanly overwhelming presence further weakened Daniel, bringing him near death, Dan. 10:4-9.
    2. God then used His heavenly angels to revive Daniel physically and emotionally so he could hear the prophetic message, Dan. 10:10-21:
    3. In that prophecy, Daniel learned he with all the righteous would be resurrected after dying to live in Messiah's kingdom, 12:1-2, 13:
      1. In the prophetic vision, the angel, Gabriel told Daniel the end of Israel's trials would be marked by the resurrection of the righteous.
      2. This resurrection would have the righteous shine as the stars of heaven with God's glory like the angel himself radiated, 12:1-3.
      3. The vision ended with the angel telling Daniel he would be raised from death and given his inheritance in Israel's coming Kingdom, Dan. 12:12 NIV; Theological Wordbook of the O.T., vol. I, p. 172!
      4. Now, we know from Revelation 19:11-12, 16 and 20:4-6 Daniel's resurrection with that of all Old Testament saints will occur at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah to rule on this earth.
      5. We also know from 1 Cor. 15:20-23 Daniel's resurrection is based on the resurrection of Christ, the prophetic "firstfruits" from the dead of all who will be raised in His likeness, cf. Lev. 23:9-14!
    4. Thus, Daniel's EXPERIENCE of being physically and spiritually AFFLICTED by HUMAN and DEMONIC evil only later to be REVIVED by the ANGELS symbolized his DEATH FOLLOWED BY HIS COMING RESURRECTION. This was designed to impress Daniel to HANDLE his GRIEF over evil in THIS life by SHIFTING his HOPE from THIS life to the COMING one!
Application: This Easter, we WILL find TRUE SPIRITUAL FULFILLMENT ONLY by (1) trusting in Jesus Christ Who died for our sins, who was buried and who bodily arose from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) In DOING so, (a) not only will we be cleansed from sin and made God's spiritual sons (John 1:12-13), but (b) we will be encouraged as was Daniel to live in expectation of CHRIST'S COMING life of OUR COMING resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. (3) Then, since one who trusts in Christ NOW becomes a member of His TRUE CHURCH, we anticipate the rapture of the Church where the body is changed (or raised if we die before then) and we are taken to heaven to escape the coming Great Tribulation, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; John 14:1-3. (4) Daniel and other Old Testament saints will be raised after the END of that Tribulation as Christ and we WITH Him return to the earth, cf. Revelation 19:11-12, 16; 20:4-6!

Lesson: Instead of putting his hope in his CURRENT life that so DISHEARTENED Daniel due to its being corrupted by man's sin and demonic evil, God encouraged Daniel to HOPE for HIS GLORIOUS RESURRECTION into Messiah's BLESSED COMING KINGDOM based on CHRIST'S "FIRSTFRUITS" EASTER RESURRECTION. >

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 Peggy Noonan, a nationally respected journalist wrote in the September 14, 1992 issue of Forbes the article, "Why Are We So Unhappy When We Have It So Good?" (as cited in the January 1993 issue of Reader's Digest, p. 33-36)

She noted how members of our baby boomer generation in particular "are just cleaner, more attractive sad people than we used to be."

The reason? Peggy suggested: "Somewhere in the 60s or 70s we started expecting to be happy, and changed our lives -- left town, left families, switched jobs -- if we were not. And society strained and cracked in the storm.

Why? . . . Our ancestors believed in two worlds, and understood this to be the solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short' one. We are among the first generations of man that actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search for it has caused such -- unhappiness. The reason: if you do not believe in another, higher world, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness, then if the world does not give you a good measure of its riches, you despair.

Poet W. H. Auden called the World War II era the age of anxiety.' I think what was at the heart of the dread in those days was the sense that we were beginning to lose God -- banishing him from our consciousness, losing the assumption that he was part of the daily drama, or its maker.

It is a terrible thing when people lose God. Life is difficult and people are afraid, and to be without God is to lose our great source of consolation and coherence." (Ibid., p. 35-36)



Peggy's words echo the need Daniel chapters 10-12 fill. The prophet, Daniel learned his hope for happiness was with the Bible's GOD in the RESURRECTION life to COME. We know more details of that life from the New Testament, that this LIFE comes today by FAITH in the RISEN LORD JESUS CHRIST!