Our church in Naperville, Cross of Christ Fellowship, has recently begun working our way through the book of Daniel together. I’m looking forward to what God will do in and through this sermon series as we seek to behold Him and hear from Him.
One commentator said that the theme of Daniel is this: “in spite of present appearances, God is in control” -Tremper Longman. I think this is a good a summary of the book. Over and over we are reminded that God and we, as His people, can trust Him.
Here’s a few things I’m praying for us as we work through Daniel together:
We Would Hear What God Would Teach Us in The Book
Daniel is a difficult book to preach. It is difficult for several reasons. One is that we have a hard time not merely moralizing the first 6 chapters of the book, which are mainly narrative stories. Another is that we can find the last 6 chapters of the book confusing due to all the prophetic content and symbolism. But Daniel is part of God’s Word, and as such, it is relevant and authoritative; God has something to say to us in it. I hope that each week we would hear what each passage says and consider how God might be revealing truth about Himself to us.
We Would Be Better Equipped to Live As Exiles Today
God’s people in Daniel’s day were in exile in Babylon. The book was originally written to encourage them and remind them that God really was still in control, even though they were in exile. We today as Christians are in a time of spiritual exile (1 Peter 2:11). This world is not our home, but we eagerly wait “the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). In this time of waiting, God has plans to use us to be a blessing to the nations around us (Gen 12:2-3). This includes living lives of holiness, sacrificial love and service, and faithful gospel proclamation (Matt 28:18-20). How do we do this today? What does faithfulness looks like? Daniel helps us answer these questions.
We Would Be in Awe of Our Great God
God really is sovereign over all of history. God really knows the future. God really loves and helps His people as they seek to be faithful to Him. God is truly awesome and great. Daniel helps us see these truths. I pray that our affections would be stirred to love and adore our glorious God as we behold Him in the book of Daniel.
We Would See Christ
All of the Scriptures point to Christ (Luke 24:44). I hope that we would see how the narratives point us not only to the faithfulness of Daniel and his friends, but to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. I hope that in the prophetic sections we would see how God foretold of us about Christ. I hope that we would read Daniel in the bigger context of the gospel.
If you would like to hear some of the sermons from our Daniel series, you can click here.
