Go Your Way Until the End

Let's turn to Daniel 12. And we're going to think together about the home that God creates for his people, even when those people have to live for a long time in exile, in an environment that's difficult, that's full of pressure, in a place where people don't always understand the things that are the most precious to us. Sometimes God's people are often called to live in a situation where people are actively hostile towards their faith and their love for the Lord.

Is it possible for God's people to still find a home with God in a place like that? This is what Daniel has been all about. It's about thriving in exile, learning to live joyfully and for the glory of God, even when we are separated from the place where we really belong. And that's in the presence of the Lord.

Daniel 12. We're going to finish our study in this book with the Lord's help now. I'm going to invite you to stand if you're able as we honor the reading of God's word from Daniel 12. We are picking up at the end of a long vision from Daniel 11. It's been all about what's going to happen at the end. And we've left the vision at a bit of a cliffhanger. It's a time of God's people's fiercest enemy coming on the scene, the Antichrist doing as he wills, raging against God's people and God's purposes. And now we pick up in chapter 12, verse one.

I ran kind of a long race yesterday in Nashville, Tennessee that went for many miles. And what was fun about running the race in the big city were all the neighborhoods we passed through, and all the big city streets in Nashville that we got to run through, and all the people who were lining the way as we ran. And they were cheering and shouting encouragement, and little kids were sticking out their hand to give us high fives. Some guy was offering gummy bears--I didn't really trust that guy. So I didn't eat the gummy bears. But I appreciated the thought.

And then there were a lot of signs, lots of posters, and many of them were very standard you know, "you can do it," "you're looking good," "keep going." Some of them were a little more creative. One of them had a picture of Mario on it and it said, "hit this poster for a power up." Man I hit that thing about seven times because I needed all the power up I could get! Others were kinda political. You know, "if Trump is still running, you can still be running." That kind of thing. "You're running faster than our government works." It's in a state capital. One was a little racy, "run like Maury just told you 'you are the father.'" Maybe we'll kind of get into that later on, but there was lots of encouragement to keep going, to run fast, all that sort of thing.

Whatever the posters said, the message, the idea behind the message was the same: "Look, we all know this is tough, right? This is hard stuff that you're trying to do. But keep going, you're gonna make it in the end, and the finish will be so worth it. That was the heart behind the signs.

And that's really been the message of Daniel, hasn't it been? Especially this final vision. If you remember from last week, chapters 10, 11, and 12 all go together. They're a set. It's all taking place in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia when God's people have actually gotten to go back to their homeland in Jerusalem. They were able to return from exile, but they found when they got there that once they got back, all their problems weren't over! They were still meeting with frustrations and setbacks. The son of Cyrus has issued an order that they have to stop building the temple. They have to stop rebuilding the city because there's some concern that they're political subversives, that they have some kind of an agenda out there.

And so they were expecting this glorious fulfillment of all of God's promises. And when they get there, the reality is just so much less than that. And Daniel is now in his mid nineties at this point. He's too old to make the journey back from Babylon, but he stays behind and he's interceding for the people. He's praying. He's trying to understand why this is so difficult. "God, why haven't your plans come to pass the way that we expected?" And in that setting, God visits Daniel with some of these angelic messengers who you read about and heard about in our scripture reading: the man dressed in linen, the one who's hovering over the river where Daniel is standing making these pronouncements. These are angelic visitors who are informing Daniel that yes, there is a time of struggle right now for God's people. But what we saw in chapter 11 is that the angel said, there's going to continue to be a time of struggle for God's people all the way to the end. Because the forces of Satan, the spiritual unseen powers are always at work against the purposes of God.

The story of history is the story of conflict. In the language of Genesis 3, between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. And so until Jesus returns, we can expect a certain level of resistance, a certain level of conflict, a certain level of trouble. And this vision leads these angelic messengers to take Daniel all the way to the end of history. So he says, "Yes Daniel, there's trouble in your time right now. There's gonna be trouble for God's people after your time, and all the way at the end of history, there's gonna be a new level of trouble. But even then Daniel 'God is in control. He will protect his people. He will give you the ability to persevere. So Daniel just keep going. The finish is so worth it.'

That is really the message of all of the Bible's Apocalyptic literature. It's kind of a $5 word. It's not because I'm smart, it's just the word that the Bible uses. Apocalyptic. Daniel and Zechariah in the Old Testament are apocalyptic books. Revelation in the New Testament is an apocalyptic book. The word means 'revealing,' to reveal, And God often comes to his people in times of struggle and trial and persecution. And he "reveals" in a vision what he's going to do in the future. He reveals to them that yes, their discipleship, their walk with him, it plays out on a stage of trouble and conflict, but God's in control of the story, and he's ultimately going to vindicate his people, so overcome, persevere! That's really the point of Daniel, and Revelation, and those kinds of books. It's not to satisfy our curiosity about all these little details of things that are gonna happen. It's to put steel in the backbone of God's people, to put some grit in us to keep going and to keep trusting God no matter what happens. And when we absorb that message, we can keep going, and we will keep going no matter what our time of exile may throw at us. In fact, when we absorb this message of Daniel and Revelation about the call to overcome, trusting the God who is sovereign, when we absorb that message, we can not only survive our exile in this world, we can learn to thrive in our exile for the glory of God, and maybe even be used to turn others to the truth, to turn others to this great God. That's what Daniel 12 tells us about.

So this last chapter of Daniel 12, it's bringing together all of these themes that we've been unpacking as a church family over the past several months in this Daniel series. And I want to bring out those three themes for us to try to draw this book together before we express our trust in the Lord at the Lord's table. So three themes I want you to see:

And those themes are all throughout the passage, but especially verses 1-7. Would you agree that your expectations going into something make a big difference in how you respond to them? I remember one time taking a long road trip with some friends in college to go to a friend's wedding. And you know, we were all kind of broke. And so we're scrimping together money to pay for gas and we've gotten all dressed up. We sit through this long wedding and we're all expecting to be fed after that. We're all expecting this big meal, and then they passed out nuts and mints. Right? That wrong expectation really impacted the way I was able to respond to that situation. Maybe you've had a false expectation on a bigger scale. Any time you've gone into a home building project (I know that may be some of you, so I'm not trying to get personal). If you've gone into a home building project, you expected it to cost this much and last this long, but it ends up costing that much and it lasted that long. That expectation that you had, it impacts your ability to respond to. We all face that issue of expectations all the time.

And that's really the problem that the people in the story are facing. The people of God who've gone back from exile to Jerusalem--they expected this to be the big happy ending--'and they all lived happily ever after.' They expected it to be the fulfillment of all God's promises through Isaiah and Jeremiah and these other prophets. But instead, they just find more roadblocks, more setbacks, more difficulty. And because they weren't expecting a time of trouble, they get discouraged, they might get bitter, might get angry with God as if he's cheated them somehow. And that's what our text is trying to address, rightly setting our expectations as God's people for the trouble that we are going to encounter, the pressure that is going to come our way as long as we're waiting for Jesus to return.

So right here in Daniel  12, we're picking up at that "time of trouble" that we've been discussing since chapter 11 verse 35. It's that time when the Antichrist, the big final boss, the big final enemy is on the scene. He's exalting himself against God, making life difficult for God's people. It's a difficult time. Verse 1 says that it will be unlike anything that God's people have ever faced. Verse 8 describes this period as lasting for 'time times and half a time,' and over that period, we're going to see, "the shattering of the power of the holy people." That sounds bad. That's alarming language. It's going to seem in this period of time like the darkness is finally swallowing up all the light. It's going to seem like evil is finally going to triumph over God's purposes in the world.

And this period of time that's so intense, we tend to label it as the "great tribulation," right? You're familiar with that term? The great tribulation. And I think one of our problems when we discuss the great tribulation is we can sometimes talk about it like it's this totally exotic idea. This idea that God's people would face trouble and pain and difficulty in the world--sometimes we can talk about it as if that's only something that happens at the end of history to just a very specific group of God's people, but not to us, right? Not to American Christians living in 2024. We're not going to encounter trouble like that! We shouldn't expect to face pressure like that. I mean, 'we're not gonna be there for the tribulation. I'm gonna be out of here. Amen?' You know we say that kind of stuff a lot, and there's some truth in some of those things. But the problem is we can set ourselves up for this expectation that apart from that great tribulation, life is basically gonna work out the way that I want it to as a follower of Jesus. That I'm not going to face difficulty or pressure or trouble. And that can lead to a lot of problems in our Christian life.

Now here's what I want us to see from Daniel 12. It is true that this final trouble, this final tribulation he talks about, it is unique. I mean the text makes that really clear. It's unlike anything that's been seen in the world. However, it's not this totally new, foreign thing that comes into the lives of God's people that they've never seen before. No, instead it's the culmination of the trouble that God's people have always faced in this world.

If we think that we won't have to go through some hard times as the people of God in this world, then we've slept through the book of Daniel (and that may be some of you--won't name any names), but we've slept through the book of Daniel. Because the whole book has been underscoring for us that God's exiled people face pressure and face trouble. Think about it. As soon as they show up in Babylon, immediately, the forces of the empire are trying to rewire the way that they think, make them forget where they come from. They're assaulting their deepest values. Or how about this one? When the three Jewish boys refuse to bow down to the golden image, they are cast into a fiery furnace. When Daniel keeps on praying to his true God instead of to the king, he's thrown into a lion's den. There's pressure, there's trouble for the people of God who want to remain faithful to him in this world. The prophecy section from Daniel 7 to Daniel 12 are highlighting this exact same theme, right? What does Daniel see coming up out of the churning waters of the sea and stomping around all over the earth?These kingdoms of the earth that look like monsters and rage against God's people. We've read about Antiochus Epiphanes, this Greek ruler who's going to come and assault Jerusalem. We've read about the Prince of Persia--these Principalities and powers that are trying to block the prayers of God's people because there's a spiritual battle going on. There's been trouble all through this book. It's been like one of the great themes of the book, the trouble that God's people encounter.

And you say, well yeah, maybe that's the Old Testament, that's Daniel. But when I turn to the New Testament, I hear Jesus saying "In this world you will have tribulation, (John 16:33). 2 Timothy 3:12, Paul says the same thing, "All who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will face tribulation. Or Peter--1 Peter 4:12, "Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial that's coming upon you as if you were experiencing something strange. Or John--Revelation 1:9, "I, John your partner in the tribulation." He's not talking just about something that's gonna come at the end of history. There is something unique coming then. But the way the Bible presents this is if you belong to Jesus and your citizenship is in heaven, and you're living in this world that's in rebellion against Him, you're gonna be facing a certain level of tribulation all the way till you get to the end, all the way home.

And so if we have it in our minds, this expectation that God just won't allow his church to face difficulty and trouble and problem and resistance and even persecution, we're overlooking a lot of the Bible. We're also overlooking all of church history, and we're overlooking what God's faithful people are enduring all over the world right now. I dare say that if we lived in certain parts of the world today, as followers of Jesus, we would think we were in the great tribulation. It's so different from our experience here. But they are called to pay a high cost for being loyal and faithful to Jesus in this world.

You say, well, this is a real chirpy message for a Sunday morning. Well, it may not be what we want to hear, but I believe it's what we need to hear if we're gonna have right, sober expectations of what we will encounter as the people of God in this world. It will keep us when our lives experience whatever level of turbulence or trouble we may face. It will keep us from becoming whiny and grumpy and grouchy and bitter and entitled and raging against God for why he's letting these things happen in our lives. Jesus said, "In this world, you will have tribulation. So we need to have right expectations for life in this world and it should cause us to cry out with all of God's people, "come Lord Jesus in this tribulation and reign in your world."

So there's a pressure God's people should expect. 

This is the other theme of Daniel and it's a lot happier, right? We're really thankful for this theme too. I can remember watching TV with my dad when I was a little kid. And it was these people singing gospel songs and this one real, real young guy came on the stage and he was wearing it out. And I was a little kid, but I thought man, this kid's going places, you know? And it turns out his name was Jason Crabb, right? Y'all know Jason Crabb? He's like a gospel singing legend. And the song that he was singing was take you "Through the Fire" again. He will take you through the fire again. And I can still remember those lyrics from the first time I heard them. So it's a song to God's people that:

God never promised that the cross won't get heavy,
Or that the hill won't be hard to climb.
He's never offered the victory without fighting,
but he has said that help will always come in time. 

And he goes on through that song to say there will be fires that you're called to pass through as the people of God, but God will take you through the fire. Now, we all kind of prefer for God to take us around the fire, amen? And we just detour that thing. But that's not the way the Lord works. No, he takes us through the fire. That's what the book of Daniel has been all about, hasn't it? God didn't take Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego around the fiery furnace, but he did take them through the fiery furnace. And that is God's way. That is how he gets glory for himself in this world: when his people trust and love him enough to say, "Lord, I will go through the fire with you because I know you will deliver me."

Well, that theme comes to its culmination here in Daniel 12. It's the pattern that we've seen all throughout the book. You can expect pressure in this world as God's people, but you will experience preservation if you hold fast to him.

So it starts in verse 1, the very beginning of verse 1 with supernatural protection. So just super quick, in the day of trouble, this intense day of trouble, who does God send? Michael, this warrior angel who's a special guardian for the people of God. And he fights on their behalf. And it makes me wonder how many times in our own lives God is personally dispatching messengers and guardians to fight for us and to preserve us. The New Testament tells us that he's doing this all the time. So we see the supernatural protection.

Later in verse 1, 1b, we see a simple promise. It's really simple. But "at that time," I mean in that time, that's that hell on earth time, right? That's the great tribulation. But "at that time your people shall be delivered." It's a simple promise. But we need to hold on to it when the trouble rages. Whether it's trouble at level 15 on a scale of 1 to 10 like this great tribulation, or it's trouble in the level of a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 on a Thursday afternoon in your life as a Christian. You hold on to that promise: you shall be delivered. If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it. That's not just a bumper sticker kind of a Christian cliche. No, that is rock solid covenant promise from the God of the Bible to his people.

Then at the end of verse 1, we see God's sovereign purpose that must stand. We're told here that the names of God's people are written in the book. Now, I said the Book of Life in the scripture reading because I'm importing from Luke 10 on accident. Sorry about that. It's written in the book, but it's the same thing that Jesus is talking about there. They're written in his book. And y'all, what more security could we ask for in this world when life is hard and scary and the future is uncertain? To know my name, your name, it is known to God. And with his own hand it has been inscribed by God, recorded in his book of life. It cannot be erased! No matter what the world, the flesh, or the devil may throw at you or throw against you, your name is secure in God's book. That's something to hold on to when the pressure is on as the people of God.

We find the same theme here in verse 8 of Daniel 12 with a shortened period, a shortened period. So on the one hand, the angel tells Daniel that the strength of God's people is gonna be shattered. That's the bad part. But he also tells them it will only last for "time, times, and half the time." Now that's a significant period. And it would feel really significant if you were living through "time, times, and half the time." But don't miss the big point. The big point is that this time period is limited, it's restricted, it's contained, it won't go on forever. In fact, the message of the text seems to be that God is deliberately going to intervene and shorten this period of testing. That's how Jesus talks about it in Mark 13 and Matthew 24.

So, you know, I'm not like some big number expert, but I do know that in the Bible, the number seven, that's the number of days God took to create the world, it represents a number of completion. 3.5 (again, I'm getting out of my depth here. I'm a preacher, not a mathematician), but 3.5 is half of seven, right? And so if this time period, "time, times, and then half the time," 3.5, that's half of seven. In other words, before the people of God are completely shattered. I mean, it looks like they're going to be utterly broken and undone, but God intervenes. He cuts it short. He delivers them from all of their trouble. It's just what Daniel learned what happened during that Antiochus Ephiphanes attack back in chapter 8 and other places. And that was a little pattern for what God's going to do at the end. He's gonna intervene and deliver his people.

And then finally back up in verses 2-3, we find a saved people. Listen to the promise God makes to his people who endure whatever trouble comes their way for following him. It says, "And many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and contempt." This is one of the Old Testament's most vivid promises of bodily resurrection, which we've been talking about a lot on Wednesday nights in our heaven study.

The point here is the very worst thing that tribulation can bring to the life of a believer is what? What's the worst that this world can do to us? It could kill us. Nobody's here to sign up for that, right? But the very worst thing that the world can do to us is kill us. And God's response to that is, "No problem. I'll bring them to life again," (and not just back to where they were Brother Greg, because I'm not much to look at under any lighting situation), "I'm going to gloriously transform them to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ on that first Easter morning. And they will be conformed to the image of my son so that he will be the firstborn among many brothers on a new earth and they will reign forever in my kingdom for my glory.

Take that tribulation, take that Satan, take that world! That's what he's saying. God completely reverses the worst that the world can do to His people. He goes on to say, "and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever." In other words, when God intervenes on this final trouble, raises his people up, he makes them glorious. They're shining radiantly. No more trouble after that. No more tribulation, no more tears, but shining like stars.

So here's the big takeaway: in this world as God's people, you should expect pressure. It's part of the deal. But you will also experience preservation, through this life and beyond this life. We need that message as God's people, which is why Daniel is told to 'seal up this prophecy.' That doesn't mean to seal it up and hide it away to be a secret. It means to seal it up and keep it safe, because when trouble hits God's people are gonna need this. I think that's what's happening in verse 4, when it's talking about people running to and fro like when the trouble heats up for God's people, they're searching for answers, searching for security, searching for a way forward. And it's this truth that God's revealed, that's what's gonna cause their knowledge to increase. That's what's going to give them the sustaining power to overcome all the way to the end. So we've seen there's a pressure that we can expect, but there's a preservation that we will experience as the people of God at whatever time in history God calls you to live.

And we'll close with this. The whole book closes with this:

So after Daniel has heard everything that I've been talking to you about, he is refreshingly honest. He raises his hand and says, "I'm sorry, I just don't understand any of this. Could you run over that again a little bit slower this time? And maybe give me a little more detail about when this stuff is gonna happen and how exactly it's going to happen?" Daniel's got all these follow up questions. But I want you to notice in verses 8-13 that instead of giving Daniel more information, he makes practical application. He gives Daniel and us four practical ways that this look into the future of God's plans equips God's people to respond to it. If we know that God's in control and these things are coming, how should we respond to it?

Four Ps: I'm gonna try to be quick and then we're done. All right. First, there's:

1 - A Present to Seize (v9)
"Go your way. Daniel. For the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end." To cut to the chase, don't obsess about the future. Don't spend your life worried about the details of what's going to happen, trying to figure it all out. You let God worry about the future. He has it under control and it's sealed safely in His plan. You worry about the present. You worry about going your way in whatever life God has assigned to you. And you be as faithful every single day to Him as you know how to be. Everything else will take care of itself. Y'all, if you have a right biblical understanding of the future, it won't make you crazy about the future. It will make you locked in on the present, being faithful to the God who holds the future. There's a present to seize.

2 - A Purity to Pursue (v10)
"Many shall purify," (in other words between now and the end), "many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined. But the wicked shall act wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand." What the angel is saying is that the current of this world that we're living in, it's like the current of that river out there. If you get in that river and you just sit still, you are not going to stay at Craven's Landing. You're gonna end up in Clifton somewhere, or Parsons, or Paris. You're gonna be carried away because there's a current pulling at you all the time. And the current of this world spiritually is towards wickedness. It's not towards the Lord, knowing him, loving him, walking with him, listening to his word.

And so Daniel and Sharon Baptist Church, if we live passively in this world, and let its current take us wherever it wants to take us, it will take us to wickedness. Now, you may not become Hitler or Antiochus Epiphanies, but you will not drift towards godliness. You will not drift into living all out for the glory of God. You'll be swept along. So you've got to remember you're in exile. This place isn't home yet, right? We're still in enemy occupied territories. We await the return of Jesus, but our true home is coming. Our citizenship is in heaven. We're awaiting our savior to come. And so in the meantime, you're gonna have to go against the current. You're gonna have to pursue purity in the sight of God. You're going to have to pursue the knowledge of the Lord in his word. Because you know that one day you're gonna shine like a star in a new heavens and a new earth. So I wanna start shining right now and live for him. There's a purity to pursue. Finally, there's:

3 - A Perseverance to Prioritize (vv11-12)
Look, I'm not gonna get into a big discourse about all these days and what they mean. I'm just gonna tell you what I think it means. What Daniel 12 tells us is that the time of trouble in testing for God's people is described as '3.5 years,' as 'time, times, & half a time,' and as 1290 days. It's all kind of the same thing. It's just this period of intense testing. And what Daniel's told in 11 and 12 is if the testing lasts for 1,290 days, then blessed are you If you're still standing at 1.335! You just make it to the end. You keep trusting and obeying God even when it's difficult. Even when you don't understand everything that he's doing, even when you don't like everything that you do understand that he's doing, you keep trusting God to the end. If you look in rRevelation, which we don't have time, the big theme of the book is to the one who overcomes, to the one who overcomes. You keep trusting him and you will overcome and receive all of his inheritance, which brings us truly, finally to:

4 - A Place to Seek (v13)
This is an incredible finish to this book. OK, so remember Daniel, when we meet him in chapter one, is like 15 years old, ripped away from his home in Jerusalem, where the temple is, where his God is worshiped, where his family is, the place where he's received this name, which includes the name of God in it, where he is just pulled away from all of his values, everything, he's pulled away from home, and he's carried away to Babylon where none of that good stuff is, forced to live in exile. He's now been in exile for more than 70 years. His life story is the story of a man longing to be back home, right? Every single day. He's praying three times a day at his open window looking back toward home, Jerusalem. He's always wanted to get there, never able to make it. It's a story of a man longing to be in his right place at home. Daniel is never gonna get home in this life. He's gonna end his life in Babylon, out of place, right? In the minority, feeling the pressure--that's how he's going to end his life. But listen to the promise of verse 13. It's so sweet.

"But go your way, Daniel until the end and you shall rest and you shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days." Daniel has spent his life not having a place where he fits, not having the place where he was made to be and flourish. But he will have a place! It's already allotted for him. It's the exact same language used when Joshua is literally parceling up real estate packages for the people in the promised land. Daniel has that kind of parcel waiting on him in the new heavens and the new earth. He won't be in exile anymore. He will be home forever finally. And we've got that too if we are in Jesus Christ. The Son of God left heaven, his home, and became an exile for us, and was cast out of the presence of God at the cross to bear your sin and to bear my sin. He rose from the dead on the third day. And if you trust in him, he'll bring you home to God. He'll bring you into God's family. And when you die, he will raise you up from the dust of the earth and He will put you in your allotted place. No more tears, no more tribulation.

We come to the Lord's table to proclaim a number of different things. One of the things that we're doing is we're looking back at what Jesus accomplished for us at the cross. He said "it is finished" when he paid for our sins. We are forgiven before God if we trust in Him. We also look at the present and our current commitment to the Lord, our walk with Him, our allegiance to Him as our Lord. We remember that 'Jesus is Lord' that we proclaimed in our baptism. We ask ourselves, "am I still making that declaration? Am I still living for Him as my Lord?" We look around at one another in this room, this people of God we've been called to walk with God by faith alongside. And then we look ahead to the future, and we declare to each other, "there will be a day when we have a meal together as the people of God, not as exiles, but home! Not with all of the tribulations of life in a fallen world. No, but with every tear wiped away, Jesus glorified at the center, all of God's purposes fulfilled.

So we come to this table in hope. If you're here today and you've confessed your faith in Jesus Christ, you are constantly turning from your sin to him, then this table is for you. We invite you to come and join us at this table. If you're here and you've never made a personal commitment to Jesus, we're so glad that you're here. You're not gonna wanna come down to this table, but from your seat, you can sing with us. You can watch as God's people come one by one--so many different people from different backgrounds, but all making the same confession. Our true home is with Jesus. We're trusting him to get us there. And you can know Jesus is inviting you. He's using this picture at this table to invite you, to call you home to him. 

Sermon by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church