What are the headlines in world events these days??
Jesus Christ spoke about the future over 2000 years ago. Matthew 24:3-8 states, As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ’I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Should we be surprised at what’s going on in the world? We are in the future that Jesus talked about! God tells us the future! Why does God tell us about the future?
Open your Bibles to the end of the Book of Daniel. We can note a few things from what God said to Daniel regarding prophecies.
Look at Daniel 12:8-13 with me…….
God basically said to Daniel, “I’m telling you the future, trust me, you may not understand it now, but you will!”
And what will happen as the days are fulfilled towards the future? Look again at v10, “Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.” In other words, God will continue to save people and make them holy but there will be evil till the end!
And in v13, God basically told Daniel, “live your life to the full, you will die but you will rise again to be in heaven forever and ever!” God gave Daniel a glimpse of the future so that he would live life to the fullest! Prophecies are written in God’s Word the Bible and God’s Word is to be heard.
God spoke through Daniel about the future to help Daniel and the Israelites with their faith in God and the Messiah to come; but God also spoke to help those who believe in the Messiah with their faith in Jesus Christ. Christians are to live by faith and faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Are you ready to hear the Word of God? Open your Bibles to Daniel 7 now and read along with me v1-14 to begin with.
Daniel had a dream, a God given vision!
The 1st thing he saw was the (v2) four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. We can not fully understand what that might mean, but in context, we can note that God was involved in the events on earth! And also, churning can mean much happening! Aren’t people saying today, “crazy things are happening in the world today!” There’s a lot of “churning” going on earth today!
V4-7: Then Daniel saw 4 beasts. The 1st beast was like a lion with wings of an eagle. The 2nd beast was like a bear eating something. The 3rd beast was like a leopard with four wings and four heads. The 4th beast was terrifying, frightening, and very powerful; with large iron teeth which crushed and devoured its victims; it had ten horns from which a little horn emerged.
Then Daniel saw in v9-10, God took charge!
V11: the beast was slain; its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.
v12: other beasts were stripped of their authority
We read in v13-14…..
Daniel sees Jesus Christ!
What do these all mean? God gives us interpretation!
Let us now read Daniel 7:15-28…….
v15-16: Daniel asked for interpretation because he was troubled and God answered! Are you troubled about anything? Have you asked God for understanding? Daniel approached God through one of God’s messengers.
Daniel was told in v17: four beasts are kingdoms that will rise from the earth
v18: the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever and ever! I wonder if Daniel knew what “saints” meant. I challenge you to search the Hebrew word used here for saints.
v19-26: fourth beast, different and most terrifying:
(v7) a single horn will emerge from the 10 horns
(v21) horn wars against the saints, defeating them until…
(v22) Ancient of Days judged in favor of saints
(v24-25) ten horns are ten kings from 4th kingdom
(v26) power will be taken away and completely destroyed
v27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him! And so, the end is actually the beginning of eternity! And who will be in eternity? The saints and the Most High will be together forever!
And look again at v28……
What was said, was it and Daniel was still troubled but kept the matter to himself.
Just a quick application here: What should Christians be saying about what’s happening in Japan??
We can be judgmental, because the truth is, God will judge sins. Daniel, knowing the future, can be judgmental of people! But what do we note here? Daniel kept quiet! And we note from the New Testament that Christians are to tell the truth in love! Yes, we must tell the truth but we must love! And judgment belongs to God and in His time, not ours!
Let us summarize what will happen based on Daniel 7.
Simply, 4 kingdoms will come to earth before the eternal kingdom of God happens. Now, we could speculate and try to figure out who these empires are; but in context, God doesn’t reveal who these kingdoms are.
And so for now, let us stick to what God specifically states in this chapter and look at applications for our lives.
God does give us some details about the last kingdom: The 4th kingdom will be strong and will be an enemy of the Believers of God (these would be Christians) but will be destroyed forever by God Himself!
And the final good news is, the saints (Believers of Christ) will reign with God in a Kingdom which will be forever! The New Testament speaks of this same truth because it is the same God who wrote both the Old Testament and the New Testament!
And so, what other Biblical principles form Daniel 7 can we apply to our lives today?
God gave Daniel a glimpse of the future for a reason. And so for us, the simple application is, God gives us a glimpse of the future for a reason!
And what are those reasons?
1. We should not be surprised with what goes on in the world.
Wars, earthquakes, tsunamis,…… these are just birth pains. We haven’t seen nothing yet! The final birth of God’s judgment will happen soon and will be an eternal judgment.
In His divine providence, God will allow evil and kingdoms in the world! God will allow hardships in this world. God will allow certain things to happen but God is always in control and will stop everything in His own time!
And knowing the future and knowing that God is always in control should lead us to what?
2. Knowing the future and knowing God is always in control should lead us to faithful, godly lives!
Having trouble being faithful and godly? - Think about the future set by God!
Like Daniel, we all may die one day, but God will raise us up and live forever and ever in heaven! And God will judge in His own time!
If you’re a Believer of Jesus Christ, you will reign with God in heaven forever and ever! Live life to the fullest with God right now and for the rest of your life! How do we do this? We have learned so much from the Book of Daniel; I encourage you to review the biblical Principles and applications; you can either go on the internet for previous messages or I can give you copies. But may I just encourage you to think about our Core Values as a church; the Book of Daniel as well as the entire Bible speaks of these values! Make these Core Values personal for you everyday for you will take them to heaven with you!
Be Worshipful!
Is God worthy of praise?? God is good….. then WORSHIP God in everything!
Be Biblical! – daily listen to God’s Word and live it!
Be Prayerful!
Be Relational!
Be Evangelical!
Fellowship with other Christians and share the truth in love with others!
