Daniel 10 • The Gospel Touch
Listen to the audio version of this message with the player below.
Sermon Notes
Transcript
(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
We have had a blessing having the Chicago Staff Band with us of the Salvation Army, recognizing they not only bless us, but the lives of many who are in need for the sake of Christ's name.
So we're thankful to have them here.
And as they are kind of folding their instruments now, let me ask that you would look at Daniel chapter 10 with me, Daniel chapter 10.
We've been looking throughout the book of Daniel and we come now to the very last prophecy in the book of Daniel, but it will cover three chapters.
So even though we start now at Daniel chapter 10, we are just beginning a vision that will cover three chapters, and this is the introduction.
It is a vision of a great conflict that will run for generations.
And the consequence of seeing the vision is that Daniel, the prophet, goes into deep depression.
For three weeks, he does not eat; he does not sleep; he does not bathe.
Strength is drained from him.
And then to speak into that despair, a man in white linen comes to touch him with the gospel that restores even a prophet.
Let's stand as we'll begin reading at verse 5, Daniel chapter 10, as Daniel records what happens to him out of his darkness.
Daniel 10 and verse 5, "I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.
His body was like beryl," or marble, "his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.
And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.
So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me.
My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength.
Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.
And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
And he said to me, 'O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.'
And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.
Then he said to me, 'Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you have set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.
The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days.
For the vision is for days yet to come.'"
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, You are the King of glory.
And before You, strongholds break.
For You come with righteousness in Your right hand and in Your left.
Your sword is the Word of Truth.
And Your heart is full of grace.
So by the power of Your Word and the working of Your Spirit this day, we ask that You would impress upon hearts that hurt and wonder what's next and wonder if You would be there for them, that You would teach us of Daniel, a man who learned he was greatly loved and did not need to fear, even with the mission that You put before him.
Grant us insight that we need for Your purposes we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
Our friend, Julie, was a young girl, listening in the darkness of her bedroom to her father in the hallway between the bedrooms, also in darkness, speaking to his soldier son oceans away.
Julie could not hear much, the murmuring of the brother coming through the phone, but she knew something was terribly wrong.
What had happened was the young man was in a war that he could not understand and he had committed deeds he could not explain.
He was frustrated.
He was confused.
He was angry and ashamed of it all.
And he was speaking to his father out of that frustration in words that stormed with rage.
The great danger to the son at this moment was not the enemy on the battlefield: It was the weapon in his own hand.
And the father knew it.
And he did what a father must.
He waited for a lull in the storm of words and said, "I love you, David."
More rage.
More confusion.
More despair.
And then a gasp for air.
And the father again, "I love you, David."
And so the conversation went as a father reached with all he could reach through the phone line to the struggling son to say over and over again, "I love you, David."
The reminder that in peoples' deepest darkness sometimes the thing that can reach to touch is simply the reminder that someone loves them beyond their despair.
And if that sounds simple, recognize it's precisely what's happening in the life of a prophet named Daniel that you know very well by this point.
Despite faithfulness, despite courage, despite standing for the Lord through so much, he now receives a vision of a great conflict that is coming.
And it will go on for generations.
And the consequence is he is just drained of strength and energy and, for the moment, even hope.
He does not eat.
He does not drink.
He does not sleep.
He does not bathe.
It is all the classic signs of depression.
And then appearing before him is one who comes from God clothed in white linen and says the wondrous words of verse 11, "'O Daniel, man greatly loved.'"
"I love you, Daniel."
Who says that?
Who is this man in white linen with the face that shines like the sun, with eyes that flash with fire?
Who is this?
To answer, I'm going to ask you to look at another portion of scripture, to look in your bibles at the book of Revelation, the very end of the Bible, and the very first chapter of the book of Revelation.
You will see a familiar figure.
Revelation chapter 1 and verse 13, "In the midst of the lampstands," says the apostle John, "one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.
His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters."
Who is this?
We've seen him before.
The long robe, the body that gleams, the face of the sun, the eyes of fire, the voice that sounds like a multitude, like roaring waters.
Who is this?
Verse 16, "In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him," says John, "I fell at his feet, though--, as though dead."
Precisely what Daniel did.
"But he laid his right hand on me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one.
I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.'"
Who is the man in white with the belt of gold, with the face that shines like the sun, with the eyes of fire who says, "I love you"?
Who is that one?
That is the Lord Jesus.
And here He appears in Daniel chapter 10 to speak to a prophet who has been wiped out by the reality of a world in conflict.
And even back then, the incarnate Lord seems to appear to say, "I need you to understand how great is My love for one like you and a world that suffers like you."
And the message of the gospel comes through three amazing touches.
The first touch is in verse 10.
Daniel 10 and verse 10, "And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees."
This is the touch that comes out of the greatness of the glory of God.
The image we recognize even from other passages of scripture, that one glows as with fire, as though the holiness of God, untouched by earth's stain, now begins to gleam with a glory of the holiness of God in such a way that there is a radiant fire that bursts from the image, even as He is clothed in robes of purity with the gold purity sash around Him.
This is the image of the great holiness of God, and He speaks with the sound of thunder.
We have heard it many times in the scriptures, not just here in Daniel.
Do you remember when the people of God were released from slavery in Egypt and they gathered to hear the commands of the holiness of God before Mount Sinai?
And there God appeared in the Shekinah glory.
It was fire and thunder, and the people trembled and fell on their faces.
And when Solomon would establish the temple, that same Shekinah glory comes down.
And the glory cloud fills the temple so much so that even the priests cannot stay in the temple.
And the people fall on their faces, and even a king bends his knee, Solomon, to pray to God.
And a prophet Isaiah, walking in that temple one day, somehow has the heavens opened before him, and he sees a vision up into heaven where there is the three times holy God surrounded by the seraphim whose name means burning ones.
And as they flit among the clouds, they speak in thunder, so much so that the thresholds of the temple shake, and they say the words, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty and the whole earth is full of his glory."
And it is the image that reappears at Pentecost when Christ, having ascended, sends the Holy Spirit, and He appears in flames of fire and the sound of rushing winds.
What a great week to be in Peoria to talk about the sound of rushing winds.
[Laughter]
And to recognize it is magnified, multiplied in the thundering and the multitude and the roaring of waters when God is declaring who He is.
Each time this glory of God comes, there is a natural, supernatural response in humanity.
The glory exposes humanity and therefore exposes sin.
The people of God before Sinai say, "We cannot go up, Moses.
You must go up the mountain for us."
And they fall down.
Solomon falls down.
Isaiah says, "I am ruined.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
I live among a people of unclean lips, and I have seen the glory of God.
I cannot stand."
And even at Pentecost, when the people saw the flames of fire, when they heard the rushing winds, it says, "They were bewildered and amazed."
It happens every time.
That when this great glory of God comes, the immediate response is that God's people, having perceived it, are broken.
I can't stand before this.
I can't be before this.
And then, right out of that glory, comes an even greater glory.
The glory not of greatness but of tenderness.
This God who has appeared to Daniel in all of the shining radiant holiness reaches out and touches the one that's on the ground, that has fainted before the reality of the holiness of God.
And then says these wonderful words in verse 11, "'O Daniel, man greatly loved.'"
I've seen your humility.
I have actually seen your despair.
But I touch you and tell you you're loved.
And more than that, "'Understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright.'"
Not only do you have love: You have dignity, as we are reminded that our God is the lifter of our heads.
We are bowed down.
We are broken.
We are sinful.
We are weak.
We are ashamed.
And He says, "Stand up, robed in the righteousness of one not your own."
You are made right by God.
Your dignity is His; He provides it.
And then, even more than that, "'For now I have been sent to you.'"
Not just loved, not just dignity, but intimacy as God who is Emmanuel, God With Us, says, "I have been sent to you."
You're in the dust.
You're fainting.
You're not able to look at Me.
And I have been sent to you.
You cannot reach up to Me, but I come to you.
What a great message of the gospel right there.
You could not have done what was needed, so I came to you.
It's the Emmanuel principle repeated over and over and over again in scripture.
It is the gospel itself that we could not reach to Him and so He reaches to us.
And with that great dignity comes one more essential element, verse 12.
"Then he said to me, 'Fear not, Daniel.'"
There is love.
There is intimacy.
And there is peace.
It happens over and over again when God comes close to His people.
When the angel came to announce to Zacharias that John the Baptist, the one who would pronounce Jesus was coming: When the angel came to Zacharias, do you remember the first words to Zacharias as he sees the glory of God before him in the angel?
The angels says to him, what?
"Fear not."
And then the angel appears to Mary.
And what are the words of the angel to Mary?
"Fear not."
And then Jesus comes and is announced to the shepherds in the field.
And they tremble before the host of light before them.
And what do the angels say to them?
"Fear not."
It's the great message of the grace of God, saying, "I have come to you.
You are despairing.
You are not able to reach to me, but I reach to you and I give you love and dignity and intimacy with the God of the universe.
And ultimately you do not need to fear Me anymore."
You may not recognize it, but it is the progress of the gospel in everyone who ultimately bows before Jesus Christ: that we begin to say, "God, I have begun to see how great is Your holiness and how far short I fall of it.
Oh, God, I can't face You."
And God says, "I've reached to you instead, and I provide you with a dignity not your own.
You are robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ."
It's His work in your behalf, not your work that makes Him right.
The baptism that we show people, robed in white, cleansed by the water that comes to show the blood of Jesus Christ, is signifying over and over again: not our righteousness but His.
We have dignity not of our own.
And then we don't fear anymore.
The God of judgment, the God of wrath: He's not against us anymore but instead whispers, "Peace."
And so every Sunday when we worship, we retell that gospel.
Do you recognize we always start out by worshipping God with praising God?
We say, "God be glorious.
God be magnified.
Our God is great."
But then we say, "But, God, we don't deserve that.
We confess our need of mercy.
We acknowledge our sinfulness.
We acknowledge mutually as a congregation and individually in our own hearts: I need God's provision."
And then we assure one another the grace of God.
He has brought us peace.
You are no longer a slave.
You are a child of God by the work of God in your behalf.
What's so amazing in this passage of Daniel is having that gospel appear so clearly is what Daniel's unexpected response to it all is.
It's totally not what you want a prophet to do.
Verse 15, when this man in white, "When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute."
No song of thanksgiving.
No hymn of adoration.
He turns his face away and locks his lips.
The Bible is over and over again remarkably realistic about what goes on in the human heart.
And what's being expressed here is how sometimes grace that we dispense with such an expectation of turning people to smiles and happiness and wonder instead digs their hole deeper.
I feel worse now.
I see my sin all the more.
Christ had to die for me?
Why should this make me feel better?
And Daniel actually seems to express all of that.
We know it.
I just want you to deal in your mind with people you know that you've tried to talk to about the grace of God and recognize it actually seems to turn them away and turn them off and they can't face you anymore, much less the Savior.
I think of a colleague and friend of mine who a few years ago got caught in an addiction, confronted in it, lost his position.
And despite all that, I tried to reach toward him.
I called him.
I emailed him.
I texted him.
Absolute silence in response.
Nothing.
Only a couple years later did he write with some explanation.
He wrote these words: "I don't know why I did not respond.
Shame, I suppose, knowing that if I faced you, I would feel worse."
We do understand.
When a sibling is in the holding cell and you show up with the money to get them out and they're glad to get out, but they hate to see you there.
The parent who with love and gentleness and all the wisdom they can muster confronts the child about the inappropriate material in the search history on the family computer and the child saying, "I don't want to face you; I don't want to talk to you."
The spouse who has betrayed another, despite the fact that the one betrayed is willing to forgive and to receive says, "I cannot face you.
I do not want to look at you."
Or the pastor, having worked with people to restore and to help, to actually watch them come down the street and cross to the sidewalk on the other side so they will not have to face you and be reminded of themselves.
Your grace makes me feel worse.
And God seems amazingly to understand that.
After verse 15 where Daniel turns his face to the ground and was mute, we read this, verse 16, "And behold, one in the likeness of the children of man," I love that; he's like us, "one in the likeness of the children of man touched my lips."
I mean, can you just visualize it?
Here is the King of the universe, the God of all glory, in the likeness now of Jesus Christ comes and turns to one who is turned away from Him.
And He just says, "Just put my fingers on your lips."
It's both love and permission.
Tell me, tell me what's bothering you.
Tell me.
And what pours out immediately is shame and pain.
The middle of verse 16, "Then I opened my mouth and spoke.
I said to him who stood before me, 'O my lord, by reason of the vision pains have come upon me, and I retain no strength.
How can my lord's servant talk with my lord?
For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.'"
I don't want to talk to you.
When I face you, I don't even have words to say.
It takes my breath away to face you.
With what has gone on in my life and what I know my life has ahead, I can't even deal with you right now.
And we know the humanity of this as well.
But how wondrous that God gave permission knowing the pain and the shame would pour out, as though He is saying, "I can take it.
I can take it when you have to say to Me what you have to say to Me."
But what if you can't even speak those words?
Like Daniel, you go mute.
I can remember as a teen in the years after my family had functioned so well, with all the kids being so happy and my parents' home being so warm, when the tensions grew and my parents' marriage began to unravel.
And I, as kind of a sensitive, artistic kid, just did not want to feel the pain, to put myself on mute, to try to numb out, to try to not feel anything.
But when you do not feel anything, it's hard to connect with God anymore.
It's hard to pray at all.
And the wonder of a chorus that was going around at the time, how much it helped me at the time.
It was known as a song without words.
"Tired yet I can't sleep.
Wounded yet I cannot weep.
Sinful yet I cannot pray.
Father, hear the words I cannot say."
And He does.
I've asked Kevin to teach us.
7 Tired yet I can't sleep 7
7 Wounded yet I can't weep 7
7 Sinful yet I can't pray 7
7 Father hear the words I cannot say 7 7
>>> Will you sing along with us?
>>> Father, hear the words I cannot say.
Unformed, ill-formed, hard even to touch my own feelings, so bad how I feel about how I have failed You or failed myself or my own family.
And to recognize God gives permission at that point to say what we can.
It's the great exhortation of the gospel: to begin to say something, to recognize that He hears, that He's saying, "Start somewhere."
Because He's listening.
I came to you because of your words.
I came to you when you weren't able to speak the words.
God still came and listens.
And the consequence of that is the final touch of the gospel, which is not just the touch of greatness or grace: It is the touch of peace.
It comes again verse 18.
"Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me.
And he said, 'O man greatly loved.'"
Well, we've heard that before.
Why would you say that again?
Because I need to know I'm loved.
"'O man greatly loved, fear not.'"
Well, I've heard that before.
Hear it again.
Don't fear.
And then the last touch: "'Peace be with you.'"
We haven't heard that one before.
The war between you and God is over.
The wrath is done.
He is right with you, not because of your work but because of your dependence upon His work.
And when you know that, you're able to say with the apostle of the New Testament, "Because we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God."
He who had every right to condemn, He would had every right to put hell before us and say, "This is your earning," that same God says, "Peace, I love you greatly.
You are Mine.
I give you My dignity, and I give you peace."
It's just the assurance of mercy, but the assurance even comes with greater dignity because it has the assignment of a mission.
Immediately in verse 19 after the man in white has said, "Peace be with you," he says, "'Be strong and of good courage.'
And as he spoke to me, and was--, and I was strengthened and said, 'Lord,' said, 'Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.'"
There's something to do now.
Among other things, Daniel has the message to tell.
He's got the vision he's supposed to be telling people.
He's the one who's been in the dirt.
He's the one who has fainted away, and now God says, "I give you a purpose."
And with the peace is the promise of God's help.
That we need too.
I skipped, not because I intended but because I intended to come back to it right now, verse 13.
It's the promise not just of peace but of the strength of God to help us wherever we have to go now.
Verse 13, "'The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days,'" says the man in white, "'but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days.'"
Now, everybody who understands exactly what that means, hold up your hand.
Yeah.
Wait.
The man in white, this incarnate Christ who is here, says, "I was fighting with the King of Persia for 21 days.
And now I'm here to help you.
I stopped that fight to come help you."
What is all this about?
Do you remember how long Daniel was in his depressive state, when he was not eating or drinking?
How long was that?
Three weeks.
And now this man says, "You were in depression, because I am telling you that the King of Persia is in power.
He is going to release your people.
But there is more ahead.
You go into depression, but I am fighting for you.
You are weak.
You've stopped.
You're finished.
And, yet, I'm still here for you."
And that's not the end of the story.
Do you remember as you go on into verse 20 what s--, what the man in white says?
"Then he said, 'Do you know why I have come to you?
But now I will return to fight against the King of Pers--, the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come.
But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side except--, against these except Michael, your prince.'"
I fought for you when you were in despair.
And now I give you a mission to let the vision be known of what I am going to do in the world.
But I am going back to fight with the King of Persia, who is going to release my people in my timing.
And after he comes will come the rulers of Greece.
I've told you they're coming.
They will destroy those of Persia, but actually through them ultimately Messiah will come to the land that I will give to my people.
Here is the Lord saying to His own prophet, "I am working in the spiritual world in ways you do not even see or know, but I'm doing it in your behalf."
Why do you and I have to think about that?
Because we tend to look at the Bible and we look at it through Western, material, scientific eyes, and what God is reminding us is we only see on the physical plain, but there is a spiritual world in which God is working at precisely the same moment.
And it's actually what is happening in the spiritual world that is determining the course of human history.
And what God is saying to Daniel is, "Though you were not aware of it, I was fighting for you."
And we need to be reminded of that, that right with this material world that we see is a spiritual world that is just as strong and is just important and is actually determinative of the world before us.
There's two great mistakes that Christians can make.
One mistake is to read kind of the latest popular novel out there about demons behind every bush and we begin to tremble about demons behind every bush.
I want to remind you what you sing in "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."
"The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him.
His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure."
"Greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world."
Yes, he is strong.
Yes, he has the minds of the world.
But we are not there.
We have one who contends for us, and that is what we must remember.
One great Christian mistake is to tremble before the demons of this world.
The other great mistake is to ignore them.
We fight a spiritual battle.
And we recognize when we see events on the world stage they are not simply geopolitical.
That when God is working in our hearts, we pray about matters in France.
And we say, "What is happening?"
The newscast will just talk about religions and politics and worlds at war.
And we say, "My God is at work, and He is breaking down strongholds."
In this age of Christianity that is spreading more rapidly than at any time in world history, do you recognize nations are mingling like they have never before in world history?
Those who are of Islam faith, those who are Hindu faith are going to lands where secularism rules and are describing that mil--, and are discerning that neither militant Islam nor secular Europeanism is the answer.
God is breaking down confidence in every human institution to say, "I am the Lord.
And I shall rule."
He is the King of justice and of judgment.
And the spiritual world that we have the eyes to see because we have the scriptures describing it are reminding us that we fight on our knees.
We are not simply the people who say, "I'm going to figure this out politically.
I'm going to figure this out legally."
We recognize that are the people of God who see a world beyond the material into what God Himself is doing more greatly, more powerfully: fighting for us in the spiritual world.
And we say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
He is the one that we trust.
He is the one that we turn to.
[Applause]
And when that spiritual world opens before us because we have recognized God is at work, then we begin to discern our true mission: Glory yields to grace in our hearts, which sends mission into our lives.
I'm not just talking about large scape--, scope: I am talking about what you are able to see in every day, in every moment, not just seeing on the physical plain but believing there is a spiritual plain war that God is fighting for you.
He says in His Word, "I will give my angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways."
And here He says to Daniel, "Michael, your prince of angels, will fight for you."
What does that give us courage to do?
But see beyond the physical and fight for Christ wherever He calls us.
The son came home from war.
The phrases of P.T.S.D. were not known at the time, but clearly he experienced them with depression and alcoholism, his reality for years.
As the father continued to say to him over and over again, "Regardless of what happened, I love you, David."
Until Christ claimed his heart and David knelt before the throne of Jesus.
The reason I know that is true is because Julie was telling us that account in our church in St. Louis during the Thanksgiving service in which we were giving praise for God's work in the past year.
And she finished the story this way.
She said, "Our family is at peace now, because we know that David claimed the Lord Jesus before he was murdered."
Then she said, "We know who did it.
He's on trial now.
And I'm asking my family in this church to join with my family in another state to pray for," how do you think this sentence will end?
"The salvation of the man who killed my brother."
That makes no legal sense.
In a world that simply lived in a material way, that is senseless.
But where we believe that our God comes to break down strongholds, that we are part of an eternal battle in a spiritual realm, we believe that we are called to a purpose beyond our physical bodies, beyond our physical means, beyond the material world in front of us.
And in that battle, we are engaged because we have a great God who has extended His grace so much so that we are at peace because our war with Him is done.
But He now wars for us and for the eternal souls that He puts into our lives.
For that reason, I call you, church of God, again to see beyond the obvious, to believe in the spiritual as well as the physical, and to pray to a God who sends His angels and gives them charge over your life.
Seek Him.
Fight His battles.
And on your knees, seek His aid.
And He will say, "I love you."
And He will strengthen you and give you His peace for whatever lies before you.
>>> Father, we ask that You would do Your work by Your Word, convincing us of what is true and right and teaching us in such a way that we are prepared for the battles before us.
We do not simply fight against flesh but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies.
For this reason, we ask You, Father, to give us hope beyond our own, strength beyond our own, and knees that bend before the Father so that You might say, "I have been sent because you sought Me."
Grant, Father, for those even this day who feel worse because they've heard grace, that they would know God allows them to speak the unformed and ill-formed words of their confusion and still promises to hear and to strengthen and restore.
For the work that is ahead You call us all.
So equip us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
>>> Let's stand and respond in worship together.