“The Son of Man”
[Daniel 7:9-14]
November 25, 2012 Second Reformed Church
Today is Christ the King Sunday,
and, I believe, for the first time, I was asked this week why this is Christ
the King Sunday – after all, isn’t Christ the King and Sovereign over all of
Creation all the time? Why is this day –
the Sunday before Advent considered – specially – as Christ the King Sunday?
I thought that was a worthy question
and looked it up: in 1925, Pope Pius XI
instituted Christ the King Sunday as the Sunday before Advent because he was
concerned that – especially after WWI –
people were not remembering that Jesus is the King and Sovereign over
everything that happens in history. Pope
Pius XI instituted the day to remind people of three things: first, the Church is to be free of interference
from the state, second, the nations are to respect the teachings of the Church,
and third, the faithful are to remember and seek to see Christ reign in their
heart, soul, mind, and body.
And we might question this celebration,
because we are not a Roman Catholic Church – which is true – we are a
Protestant Church, but the fact of the matter is that Pope Pius XI was right on
this point: Jesus is the Sovereign Ruler
and King of the Creation, and we need to remember that and seek to live under
His Reign in all aspects of our lives.
And so we look at this fact, as we
turn to the book of Daniel, and specially, part of one of his visions in the
seventh chapter of Daniel. Daniel was
one of the young, intelligent, possibly upper class people brought into Babylon
during the Babylonian exile. And we are
told at the beginning of the seventh chapter of Daniel, that this vision took
place during the first year of the reign of Belshazzar – which would have been
about 553 BC – not long before the Persian conquest of the Babylonian Empire
and the return of the remnant to Israel.
As the vision begins, God tells
Daniel to encourage the people, because four kingdoms would arise after the
Babylonians, and then ten after the four, and then one which would strike down
three of the ten. We are not going to
spend time on which kingdoms these were, except to say that the Reformed
understanding is that the final kingdom – and its splinter kingdoms – were the
Roman Empire.
This has been the story and the
promise from the beginning: God told the
serpent in the Garden, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you
shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15, ESV).
From the beginning – believers – the Church – would be at war with the
forces of evil in all their varieties – human, animal, and supernatural.
David noted: “The wicked draw the sword and bend their
bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright;” (Psalm
37:14, ESV). All evil and violence that
comes against true believers in God and His Savior come because those who do
not believe and worship God hate Him and all those who follow Him.
Paul explained: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV).
Evil is real and we – as believers – as the Church – are called to fight
against it – by following God – by becoming more like Jesus – until He returns
to restore the Creation.
We are not called to create a
militia – we are not called to take up the weapons of this world to kill what
we perceive to be evil in the flesh, but we are called to follow our King and
Savior in all He has called us to do and be, and the Holy Spirit will work
through us to the Glory of God. As Paul
wrote – quoting Jesus, “To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if
he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap
burning coals on his head’ (Romans 12:20, ESV).
So, let us note, first, this
morning, that the Church is to be militant – we are to fight against all those
things which oppose God in the world – and in ourselves, as we seek to kill off
the last vestiges of sin in ourselves, but we are called to fight God’s way –
acknowledging and clinging to the hope that we have that the work is finished
through Jesus and the war is won.
After seeing the kingdoms that would
come forth in history – the kingdoms that would oppress believers in the Gospel
of God – God revealed something else to Daniel – a message of hope:
“As I looked, thrones were placed, and
the Ancient of Days took his seat; his
clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels
were burning fire. A stream of fire
issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and
the books were opened.”
Daniel saw a vision of God seated on
a throne – symbolizing His Authority and Power over all Creation. He was pure white in clothing and visage –
symbolizing His Holiness. And fire came
out from before Him – symbolizing purity in Himself and in the work that He is
doing. God is purifying the world and
will bring it to pure holiness and purity on the last day.
And all the holy angels and the
creatures of heaven – all those who have served God in holy obedience from the
beginning, stood before Him – as they do now – and worshipped Him. And then the court sat in judgment on the
world, and God opened the books to judge.
Understand, the book is symbolic of
God keeping a record – that God does not miss anything – that God’s Knowledge
is complete and perfect about everything and everyone that ever is and will
be. God does not have a bad memory, such
that He would need notes, but He has proof of all that He says and does, so
that His Judgment is Righteous and True.
God does not make mistakes, and God will not let one stray sin escape
His Judgment.
The prophet, Micaiah echoed Daniel
when he said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on
his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand
and on his left;” (1 Kings 22:19, ESV).
And John, in the book of Revelation
– which is a collection of visions, symbolizing both the persecution of the
Church – which we will not escape – and the Great Hope we have in our Holy
God: “Then I saw a great white throne
and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no
place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before
the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the
book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according
to what they had done” (Revelation 20:11-12, ESV).
Daniel’s vision continued as those
who hate God, symbolized by the final horn, continued to object and blaspheme
God: “I looked then because of the sound
of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was
killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for
the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were
prolonged for a season and a time.”
And so, Daniel emphasized the hope
to the captives – the enemies of God will not win out – God is victorious over
His enemies. But the victory will come
in stages. God will bring about His
Glory and His Victory over all sin and evil in His Time. So, yes, believers – the Church – will
continue to suffer in many ways until the end, but we are to stand strong in
the Hope that we have – that when the end comes – there will be no question of
Who the Victor is. We are called to
endure patiently through this life and look to God Alone through Christ Alone
for our Hope that God in the Person of Truth has done everything necessary to
save everyone who will ever believe in Him and to deliver them into His
Glorious Kingdom for all of eternity.
Paul wrote about this time: “Then
comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying
every rule and every authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24, ESV).
And John likewise wrote, “The
nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and
for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your
name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth” (Revelation
11:18, ESV).
And so, the second thing we should
note this morning is that the Church – all believers through time and space –
will be triumphant to the endless ages of eternity. How?
Daniel’s vision continued: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with
the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the
Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should
serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and
his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Jesus’ favorite way of speaking of
Himself was the title, “Son of Man.” And
we might wonder about that: why didn’t
Jesus just come out and say that He is God the Messiah, the King? Why did Jesus use the title, “Son of Man”?
One reason He called Himself “Son of
Man” was to acknowledge – to make sure everyone understood that He is a real
human being. Jesus had to be a real
human being in order to live under God’s Law as a human being – and secure righteousness
for us – and He had to be a real human being to take our place under God’s Judgment
and Wrath for the sins of everyone who would ever believe.
Jesus knew that Levitical
Sacrificial System and its animals could not rightly and fully take the place
of a human – as we have seen in our look at the book of Hebrews. He also knew that some of the main heresies
that would come into the Church would be those which denied that He is a real
human being.
Yet, as we see in Daniel’s
vision: the Son of Man is not merely a
human being – He is the One to Whom God gave Glory and the Kingdom – the
Everlasting Kingdom which can never end or be defeated, as all the merely
earthly kingdoms would be crushed by God.
He is the One to Whom God said all peoples, nations, languages would worship. He is the One Who would sit on His father,
David’s, throne for all of eternity and rule over all of Creation.
As Paul wrote: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and
bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians
2:9-11, ESV).
And, “for it is written, ‘As I live,
says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to
God.’ So then each of us will give an
account of himself to God”
(Romans
14:11-12, ESV).
So, Jesus, the Son of Man, is also
the Almighty God.
Jesus did not come – the first time
– blazing His Divinity to the world, but came quietly. Yet, there were times when He revealed
Himself and acknowledged that He is, indeed, the Almighty God.
When Jesus was on trial and asked if
He was the Christ – the Messiah – the Savior – God Incarnate, “Jesus said to
him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven’” (Matthew
26:64, ESV). And let us understand, the
phrase “you have said so” is an expression which means, “You’re right – you hit
the nail on the head – that is exactly Who I am.”
And John confirms that He is not
merely the Son of Man, but the judge of humanity: “And he has given him authority to execute
judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27, ESV). Because Jesus is the God-Man, God Incarnate,
He has the authority – the right – as the Promised Savior – to judge every
human being.
Jesus, Himself, confessed: “since you have given him authority over all
flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal
life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me
to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I
had with you before the world existed” (John 17:2-5, ESV).
And so we see, third, that the
Church is triumphant because Jesus is the Triumphant Son of Man, the Almighty
God, Who lived and died for all those Who would ever believe. That is our hope, and He is our comfort as we
look forward to His Return.
John wrote of Jesus’ Return – which
will not be a joy for everyone:
“Then I looked, and behold, a white
cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on
his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand” (Revelation 14:14, ESV). Jesus will not return as a helpless baby, but
as the Warrior King – Christ the King – the Son of Man.
“Then I saw thrones, and seated on
them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls
of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of
God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not
received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and
reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4, ESV).
For all we who believe in Jesus
Alone for salvation, the return of our King will be a day of joy – all evil and
sin will be banished from His and our presence.
Our fighting against sin and evil in the world and in our selves will
end, and we will enter into His Kingdom, and hear these words: “Then the King will say to those on his
right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matthew 25:34, ESV).
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say
to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne,
you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel’” (Matthew 19:28, ESV).
“’Then the seventh angel blew his
trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign
forever and ever’” (Revelation 11:15, ESV).
As long as we live on this earth and
before Jesus, our King, the Son of Man returns, we have to keep fighting by
spreading the Gospel and following Him in faith and obedience. We must run from temptation and confess our
sin and rely on God the Holy Spirit Who lives in us to continue forward until
Jesus returns for us.
And we do so filled with hope,
knowing that the Church is triumphant to the endless ages of eternity – in
through the gates of His Kingdom fully come.
Because God came to earth in the Person of Jesus, the Son of Man, lived
a perfect life under God’s Law, died for the sins of everyone who would ever
believe, and physically rose from the dead, after which He ascended back to His
Throne and reigns King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all of Creation, forever
and ever.
As we soon enter the Advent season,
we remember these words summarizing the Scripture from the “Hallelujah Chorus”:
“For
the lord God omnipotent reigneth (Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah) Hallelujah
“The
kingdom of this world; is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ and
of His Christ
“And
He shall reign for ever and ever And he shall reign forever and ever
“And
he shall reign forever and ever And he shall reign forever and ever
“King
of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah and lord of lords forever and
ever hallelujah hallelujah.”
Let
us pray:
Almighty
King and Son of Man, we rejoice and give thanks knowing that You are God and
Sovereign over everything that is.
Strengthen us as we continue to fight in Your Name to become more like
You and to spread Your Holy Gospel. Give
us the grace we need through the Sacrament we shall receive. Assure us that You are victorious, so we
shall be victorious, and our future with You in the Kingdom is Hallelujah and
Amen. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray,
Amen.
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