Rev. David Holwick F The Book of Daniel, #2
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 10, 2008
Daniel 2:1-11
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I. Deadly dreams.
Mark Twain once dreamed that his brother died.
In the dream, Twain saw him in a metal coffin.
A bouquet of white flowers with a single red blossom had been
placed on his chest.
A month later, the brother died in a Mississippi steamboat
explosion.
Upon his arrival at the funeral, Twain found the setting exactly
as it had appeared in his dream.
Some people had taken pity upon his brother and had collected money
to buy an expensive metal coffin, instead of the wooden boxes
usually used in river accidents.
As Twain paid his last respects, a woman entered the room and
placed on the coffin a bouquet of white flowers with a single
red rose in the middle.
A man named Rafael Gonzalez dreamed that an ex-employee robbed
his food market and killed him.
Six days later, Rafael bled to death after being shot during a
robbery.
Having been told of the dream by family members, detectives began
their investigation.
When the fingerprints on the cash register matched those of a
former store employee, they arrested the man as a suspect.
When told of Mr. Gonzalez' dream, the man confessed to the killing.
A few days before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln dreamed that
he awoke and heard sobbing in the White House.
Walking downstairs, he saw a coffin in the East Room.
Approaching the mourners, he asked who was dead.
The President, they replied, killed by an assassin.
#15122
A. Do dreams have meaning outside of our own subconscious?
1) The Bible is filled with dreams sent from God.
2) They are not always fluffy, however. They can be dark
and dangerous.
B. God has a plan, and over time he reveals more and more.
1) Nebuchadnezzars dream unfolds God's plan for the nations.
2) Are you a part of that secret plan?
II. The dream of a king.
A. Nebuchadnezzar was an all-powerful tyrant.
1) What do you do when you are on the top? You worry.
2) He has a disturbing dream.
B. His challenge to his advisors.
1) Tell me the dream AND its meaning.
a) Apparently he was becoming disenchanted with his
advisors.
b) His offer to them has an edge: great wealth or
dismemberment.
2) They make a reasonable request - just tell us the dream.
a) No one can come up with it out of the blue.
b) It would be like John Edwards (Crossing Over) coming
up with all the right answers and not asking any
questions.
c) Interpretations are easy (and untestable).
1> Like any politician, he wonders if he is being
fed delusions by yes-men.
2> Even they know true prophesying requires divine
help. 2:11
3) It looks like dismemberment is in order... 2:12
C. Daniel's golden opportunity.
1) He uses his typical tact and diplomacy. 2:14
2) At this point it is no slam-dunk - he asks his friends
to pray for God's mercy. 2:18
3) God graciously answers with a vision. 2:19
a) Daniel responds with prayer and praise.
b) He acknowledges that God controls everything,
including governments and leaders. 2:21
c) Daniel takes no credit for his own ability. 2:30
III. The dream is a prophecy.
A. Even pagans can experience God's voice.
1) When you think about it, it's remarkable that God
would give a vision to a pagan ruler.
2) It reflects God's promise to Abraham that his blessing
wasn't just for the Jews, but for the whole world.
B. Violent images. 2:31
1) A statue that diminishes from top to bottom.
a) Feet of clay suggests instability.
2) A divine rock shatters the statue.
a) Weak feet weren't the problem after all.
b) The statue is shattered as if by a nuclear explosion.
3) The rock becomes a mountain dominating the earth.
C. Symbolism explained.
1) The book of Daniel shares features with many other Bible
prophecies, especially Ezekiel and Revelation.
2) Unusual images are explained with God's help.
a) Nebuchadnezzar is the golden head.
1> He might take comfort in this, but he ends up
destroyed.
b) In all, four kingdoms (or empires) make up the statue.
1> There is a similar vision in chapter 7 that helps
in interpreting this.
2> The kingdoms are:
A> Babylon.
B> Media-Persia.
C> Greece. 2:39
1: It rules over the whole earth.
2: Alexander the Great wept that he had no
more lands to conquer.
D> Rome. (a mixed bag) 2:42
3> The fifth kingdom is God's kingdom.
A> It is established not in the future, but
simultaneously with the others.
B> It will never end. 2:44
IV. Nebuchadnezzar's dream is still unfolding.
A. The fifth kingdom is among us.
1) Wherever Jesus is believed in, the kingdom is there.
2) An even greater future is coming.
B. Jesus is the rock.
1) All other nations will crumble to dust.
2) America is no exception.
a) Newsweek commentary: America will diminish.
It is math, not spite.
3) In the end, only God's kingdom will remain.
V. God still reveals his mysteries.
Alexander Popov, senior pastor of Baptists in the Russian
region of Udmurtia, isn't in a hurry.
But he doesn't waste time, either.
By his count, Popov has looked death squarely in the face at
least 20 times.
So he's more aware than most that he lives on God's time
schedule, not his own.
He makes the most of his time in reaching the Udmurt
(OOD-mert) people.
In his younger years, the former geologist survived an airplane
crash landing and a mine explosion.
Twice he was saved from drowning; three times he escaped job-site
electrocution.
Once he was attacked by a bear in the woods.
He nearly froze to death in the wilderness on another occasion.
He drank some toxic homemade liquor that killed others, but
he lived.
"Why am I still alive?" Popov started to ask himself.
An ethnic Russian, he was raised in a Baptist home in Udmurtia
during the hard years of Communism.
He read the Bible (smuggled from abroad) many times.
"I knew every chapter, but I was an unbeliever," he says.
He was a scientist, an intellectual, a businessman.
Yet for some reason he kept the Bible with him everywhere he
traveled.
God answered his question with a dream: "He showed me myself,
dead in a coffin.
The grave didn't have a bottom.
That terrified me.
God spoke to my heart and said, 'This is your last chance.'"
Popov repented and experienced God's grace and mercy through
Christ.
A breath of religious freedom was returning to the dying Soviet
Union at the time, and Popov heard God's call to bring the
Word he now embraced to Udmurtia.
Bible school and seminary followed.
He fulfills his call today by starting churches, mentoring
younger pastors and distributing Bibles.
Before Bibles were available in Udmurtia, he frequently made an
18-hour train trip to Moscow to buy them and bring them back.
Then he heard that Mongolias had 100 people for every Bible.
So now he takes several trips a year there (six days by train)
to distribute Bibles.
#34503
A. What has God revealed to you?
B. Do you belong to his kingdom?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#15122 "Dreaming Of Death," Fredericksburg Bible Illustrator Supplements,
1037-1039, 5/1997.101.
#34503 "After Escaping Death, He Finds Life," by Erich Bridges, Baptist
Press, http://www.baptistpress.org, May 14, 2007.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Mastering the Old Testament: Daniel
by Sinclair Ferguson
I. Tell me the dream.
A. Either he forgot it, or he was testing them.
1) His expansion policies had caused tension.
2) He didn't trust his subordinates.
B. The king's problems:
1) He is insecure.
a) With all he has, he is only worldly-focused.
b) He had everything but peace.
2) He is hostile.
a) He is not at peace with himself, or others.
b) Ultimately, Nebuchadnezzar is hostile to God.
1> Nietzsche: "If there is a God, how can I bear
not to be that God?"
2> God's message to the king: your kingdom will
fade.
II. Daniel's character.
A. His speech is marked by wisdom.
B. His life is marked by prayer.
C. He was filled with a spirit of worship.
1) Reasons he worships God...
III. A Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
A. The king can only be a spectator of the building of God's kingdom.
1) The dream describes three successive empires.
a) Babylonian, Medio-Persian, Greek.
b) (Alexander wept because there were no more lands to
conquer).
2) The fourth empire is in an era of significant events.
a) Roman Empire in view.
3) The fifth empire is God's Kingdom.
a) It is established during the period of the other four.
1> Will it run parallel to them?
b) It will supersede the other four.
1> Allusions to Psalms 1 and 2.
B. The features of God's kingdom.
1) It is God's creation.
2) It is indestructible.
3) It is all-victorious.
4) It is universal.
5) It starts out small and insignificant.
a) The stone is Christ.
IV. Meaning for today.
A. The people of God already belong to the Kingdom of God.
1) We must obey God rather than rulers.
B. We have assurance that God's Kingdom will ultimately triumph.
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