WEBVTT 00:00:00.420 --> 00:00:02.700 Diving into Daniel chapter 12. 00:00:02.760 --> 00:00:09.900 Today, we're going to talk about eternity and when we talk about eternity it's 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:15.190 going to put us in the realm of talking a little bit about heaven and a bit about hell. 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:22.320 If you're visiting with us for the first time, I don't need to be like, "Oh no, I chose hell Sunday, grab the kids. 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:28.080 Sneak out the back." This is not like a regular-themed focal point of what we do here at the church. 00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:35.780 Now hell is real and we're not ignoring that but I just want you to know it's not like you come in every Sunday andad hell fire and brimstones, what's 00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:36.860 going to be thrown at you here, okay. 00:00:37.180 --> 00:00:44.400 We're going to talk about these as it relates to the eternal picture of where 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:51.740 we go and what God has created us for, but more than hell, I want to tell you that we're interested 00:00:51.740 --> 00:00:54.650 in not where you've been in life, where you're going. 00:00:54.920 --> 00:01:02.120 We're interested about God's message, the gospel that brings us freedom and experiencing that freedom for eternity in his presence 00:01:02.120 --> 00:01:09.240 so that will be the primary emphasis of what we're going to talk about today and we're not going to just literally scare the life 00:01:09.240 --> 00:01:09.840 out of you. 00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:14.990 While we talk about hell, hell is also in a way today could be referred to as hell no Sunday. 00:01:15.720 --> 00:01:18.640 While you look at it we don't want you going there, right. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:25.940 We're going to talk about eternity, why we don't even like to discuss sometimes some of the pictures that are created in eternity. 00:01:26.260 --> 00:01:33.500 How to deal with it and what that looks like, but when we think about you for a moment I 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:40.640 think it's important we approach this passage knowing that eternity is going to be discussed to let the need for not just you 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:47.980 to connect to God but for the place in which God leads you, the people around you to be able to connect to God, understanding what it means to have a relationship 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:48.970 with him. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.800 When a need becomes a burden within your heart I think you carry the heart of God. 00:01:54.040 --> 00:02:00.060 When God looks at us, he sees our need for salvation which is why he's called the savior or rescuer. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:07.800 He comes for us and bears that burden on our behalf so that we can be reconciled to him and God 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:11.480 carries that need in a beautiful way for the well-being of others. 00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:18.660 When you think about this valley, I think it is a very godly, biblical thing to look around, see need and carry the heart of God 00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:19.060 for that. 00:02:19.100 --> 00:02:26.600 In fact, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18 says, "God reconciled us to him and he's also given you the ministry 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:33.620 of reconciliation and what that means is God wants to now work through you to reconcile the world to him 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:37.750 and what he has done for us on the cross." That's what we say as a church. 00:02:38.440 --> 00:02:45.460 Our desire is for everyone that comes here to experience a transforming relationship in Jesus that transforms your relationship with 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:45.920 others. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:53.180 Jesus said, two greatest commands, "Love God, love others." When we look at this text today, it's not about this intellectual exercise, just explain 00:02:53.180 --> 00:02:53.860 these verses. 00:02:54.280 --> 00:03:01.460 It's connecting what Daniel's saying here in line with our heart and then seeing the need as it could expressed through our lives 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:08.880 because of what God does in us in giving that ministry of reconciliation, having allowed us to first experience it in him. 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:14.840 We're talking about both heaven and hell today. 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:16.520 Hell is in the subject every week. 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:23.740 The last week we did brush up on our Satan theology so we are tending to go in the dark side the last couple 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:30.980 of weeks here, but we're all about what God desires for us and knowing him and enjoying him 00:03:30.980 --> 00:03:31.830 forever. 00:03:33.160 --> 00:03:40.140 Daniel chapter 12 is where we find ourselves and by the way, if you've been with us in this series I think whether you physically do this or not. 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:47.100 I think it's just worthy to just raise your hand and give yourself a pat on the back because the Book of Daniel is not an easy book. 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:54.760 It's apocalyptic in nature, which is a very difficult genre of literature and even the narrative story that's told, there's a lot 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:00.640 of hardship there in trying to figure out how Daniel deals with his culture and relating it to how we deal it with our culture. 00:04:01.160 --> 00:04:03.540 When you think how the book starts, Daniel's taken into captivity. 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:06.040 He sees family and friends slaughtered before him. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.530 He gets into Babylon where he was taken captive. 00:04:08.760 --> 00:04:09.780 He wants to be a vegetarian. 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:11.420 That almost caused him his life. 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.120 His BFFs were thrown into a flaming furnace. 00:04:14.540 --> 00:04:16.300 They almost lose their life but God spares them. 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:18.200 He's thrown into a lion's den. 00:04:18.459 --> 00:04:23.040 He has these visions of these apocalyptic bees that would just freak anybody out. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:30.340 I mean Daniel is a rough book but also answers some very significant questions in the culture in 00:04:30.340 --> 00:04:33.350 which we live in because Daniel's story is about Babylon. 00:04:33.940 --> 00:04:41.120 New Testament writers write about Babylon in the New Testament even though the Babylonians had been wiped … they're gone, they're no longer 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:48.400 in existence, they kept referring to the life we live as it relates to Daniel and the life he lived in Babylon knowing that culture 00:04:48.400 --> 00:04:51.040 always fights against God. 00:04:51.220 --> 00:04:58.340 There's always a tension in the life of a believer in trying to figure out how to navigate through and honoring God with life while 00:04:58.340 --> 00:05:02.100 still living in a world that's filled with sin. 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:08.240 This book though difficult also points us to a beautiful picture of how to live for God. 00:05:09.840 --> 00:05:17.120 This in the story now and looking at Daniel chapter 12 and talking about eternity gives us an opportunity to look 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:19.440 at the scope of God's greater picture. 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:22.680 God's ultimate picture of what he's achieving in this world. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:30.160 I think when we live our lives God calls us to live our lives with an eternal perspective in mind because even as believers sometimes you 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:37.170 can get your little corner of this world, this little kingdom established and you live for it as if like it is going to last for eternity, 00:05:37.700 --> 00:05:44.900 but what Daniel is learning in Daniel 12 and sharing with us is that in the perspective of things, this world was designed 00:05:44.900 --> 00:05:45.820 to pass away. 00:05:47.440 --> 00:05:54.640 You have an opportunity to live for something greater and having that eternal perspective becomes an important 00:05:54.640 --> 00:05:58.180 part of that wakes us up to be like, "Why is it? 00:05:58.440 --> 00:06:05.540 Even if I win the battle at this at the end of the day, is it really worth just staking so much for?" Daniel just 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:12.880 starts to express the end of the story, the destiny of our souls, Daniel chapter 12, and he hinges this on two questions 00:06:12.880 --> 00:06:16.220 and these questions are in verse 6 and verse 8. 00:06:16.260 --> 00:06:23.880 We're going to approach it by looking at these two questions and giving an explanation, this passage, and then I'm going to look at some themes that Daniel highlights here to 00:06:24.080 --> 00:06:29.800 explain even within our culture how some questions arise out of the idea of eternity. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:39.020 With all that being said, Daniel 12:5-6, this is the first question that is posed in 00:06:39.020 --> 00:06:39.740 his passage. 00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:40.240 It says. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:47.300 "Then I, Daniel, looked and behold to others were standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that 00:06:47.300 --> 00:06:47.980 bank of the river. 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:55.320 One said to the man dressed in linen who was above the waters of the river, how long will it be until the end of this wonders? 00:06:56.440 --> 00:07:03.500 They say, "Okay, when's this eternal picture start God?" If you remember Daniel chapter 7 up until this point, this is an 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:08.560 apocalyptic demonstration or expression of what the end of the world is like. 00:07:09.700 --> 00:07:16.920 Now they're asking this question, "Okay, when will that take place?" This question is built out of what's 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:20.840 just been communicated to them in the very beginning of this chapter so let me just read it too. 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:27.180 It says, "Now at the time Michael who is the archangel, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise. 00:07:28.280 --> 00:07:35.640 There will be a time of distress such has never occurred since there was a nation until that time." You see this great time of distress 00:07:35.640 --> 00:07:37.220 having not been experienced. 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:42.100 At that time, your people, everyone who's found written in the book will be rescued. 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:50.580 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, leads to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:52.020 and everlasting contempt. 00:07:52.840 --> 00:07:59.940 Those who have the insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expansiveness heaven and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and 00:07:59.940 --> 00:08:00.220 ever. 00:08:01.100 --> 00:08:03.230 In this story it says, "Okay, there's going to be this time of devastation. 00:08:03.580 --> 00:08:11.000 It's like never before and in verse 2, he talks about your soul, your soul created to experience 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:11.580 eternity. 00:08:11.580 --> 00:08:15.300 Your soul was created for eternity and the fact that your soul will be resurrected. 00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:24.260 The explanation of the resurrection in verse 2, he divides the eternal picture into two categories and 00:08:24.260 --> 00:08:29.430 the one that lives in this righteousness and one that live in this disgrace. 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:37.740 Then the emphasis becomes, in verse 3, the idea of looking forward to this eternity 00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:40.820 where you shine in the brightness of the expanse of heaven it says. 00:08:42.059 --> 00:08:49.280 While he talks about both the idea of heaven and hell in this picture, he's giving us the expectation or 00:08:49.280 --> 00:08:54.830 the welling up within our soul to look forward to eternity. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:09:00.610 They ask the question, "Okay, what will be the end then, God?" Then verse 7, that's where they get the answer. 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:06.220 "I heard the man dressed in linen who was above the waters of the river. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:14.540 As he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever." He's swearing to 00:09:14.540 --> 00:09:15.920 one who is the authority of all. 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:22.940 He's saying this statement is true based on this that it would be for a time, times and half a time. 00:09:23.880 --> 00:09:28.040 As soon as they finish shattering the power of these holy people, all these events will be completed. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:38.100 Now I'm going to tell you a snippet of what he's talking about here because we've already addressed this, but this is a picture of his going back to Daniel 9:24-27. 00:09:38.520 --> 00:09:41.140 He's talking about that last week, which was seven years. 00:09:41.140 --> 00:09:48.600 In the middle of that week there was the last three and a half years and that time times, which is two times and a half time is that three-and-a-half 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:49.220 year period. 00:09:50.060 --> 00:09:57.220 What God's saying is as you're looking to the end here, if you want to know when the end's going to happen, it's going to happen after this 00:09:57.220 --> 00:10:03.980 time times half time and as soon as they finished the shattering of God's holy people, all these events will be completed. 00:10:04.620 --> 00:10:12.700 The answer to your question verse 5 and 6 is after these three and a half and then he gives this statement 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:14.700 that raises Daniel's concerns. 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:21.980 He says in this verse 7, "the shattering of the power of the holy people." Daniel knows okay, 00:10:22.220 --> 00:10:29.440 this includes me and he's saying, "Now, what are you talking about?" The demise 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:33.520 of … I mean I'm reading this, I'm hearing what you're saying and he's saying demise of my people. 00:10:33.780 --> 00:10:40.800 Can you give an explanation of what it is you're talking about and so in verse 8 that's what Daniels says, "As for me, I heard but could not understand." I mean anybody 00:10:40.800 --> 00:10:47.400 give you such far out news that it takes a minute to get your mind wrapped around it and maybe it's so bad you're like, "Now what? 00:10:47.520 --> 00:10:54.620 What happened?" Daniel is like, "I heard you but no comprende." He goes on and says, "So I 00:10:54.620 --> 00:10:57.110 said, my Lord, what will be the outcome of these events? 00:10:57.360 --> 00:10:59.510 Like you're saying shattering, does that mean annihilated? 00:11:00.380 --> 00:11:03.550 What does this look like?" Verse 9 he said, this is a great answer. 00:11:04.180 --> 00:11:11.260 "Carry your way, Daniel, I'm not going to tell you." That's what he said, "Carry your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until 00:11:11.260 --> 00:11:18.380 the end of time, right?" Something just to keep in mind is that 00:11:18.380 --> 00:11:25.380 I think what God is focusing in or I know what God's focusing in based on this text is he's getting down to look 00:11:25.380 --> 00:11:31.000 to where the salvation is ultimately coming that will bring about this resurrection of hope in the future, which is Jesus. 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:37.080 They're already alluding to Daniel chapter 9 and we looked at a couple of weeks ago Daniel 9:24. 00:11:37.100 --> 00:11:41.280 It starts to share with us what Jesus will do and reconciling us to him. 00:11:42.380 --> 00:11:43.640 What God is saying is, "Look, Daniel. 00:11:43.660 --> 00:11:50.660 I'm not going to overwhelm you with everything right now but this is what I want you to focus on." Just keep this 00:11:50.660 --> 00:11:58.520 in mind as you think about what God is saying to Daniel in Chapter 12 verse 9 that in Revelation 22 verse 10, this is what John said, "Then 00:11:58.520 --> 00:12:05.540 he told me, do not seal up the words, the prophecy of this scroll because the time is near." It tells 00:12:05.540 --> 00:12:08.380 Daniel okay, seal it up, John's saying okay, unseal it. 00:12:09.920 --> 00:12:14.650 Once Jesus has come you see the picture in Revelation unfolding in a little more detail. 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:22.360 This is what he tells Daniel to focus on in verse 10, "Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:30.640 will act wickedly and none of the wicked will understand but those who have insight will understand." What 00:12:30.640 --> 00:12:33.180 God is saying here is Daniel, what I want you to focus on is this purification. 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:39.750 Some will not understand, some will rebel against this but those who have insight will understand. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:48.180 He's thinking still in context of a resurrection, your soul, hoping God, perseverance, you win, this 00:12:48.180 --> 00:12:49.660 is what God's doing for you. 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:57.120 In the midst of the shattering, in the midst of this distress, compared to no other time in history, there is an ultimate hope resting in God. 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:04.680 What he's leaning into in this story is what we call the gospel and so this theme 00:13:04.680 --> 00:13:10.180 is retold not just in Daniel chapter 12, throughout scripture. 00:13:10.220 --> 00:13:12.260 What I say to you this morning, we talk about eternity. 00:13:12.380 --> 00:13:19.080 I get more questions probably in this theologically than any other as I talk about what faith is and who Christ is in this world. 00:13:19.560 --> 00:13:26.680 I think it's important for us when we walk away that we have an understanding when the Bible talks about the gospel, when the Bible talks about God's narrative, 00:13:26.900 --> 00:13:29.930 God's story written to us, what is that story? 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:31.880 How do I explain it someone? 00:13:31.900 --> 00:13:38.980 I can't sit down with them and be like, "Well, let's read 2,000 pages together." What is the theme and God 00:13:38.980 --> 00:13:42.060 is leaning into that in verse 10 for Daniel. 00:13:42.060 --> 00:13:43.770 He said, "Look, these things are happening. 00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:44.820 You win, man. 00:13:45.060 --> 00:13:47.760 You're winning." In Jesus, you win. 00:13:47.760 --> 00:13:53.250 Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world, there is victory and so rest your soul. 00:13:53.660 --> 00:13:57.120 In these pictures, what is this gospel picture? 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:05.760 I want to give us just a little bit of that narrative story and so I want us to see how Genesis 1 starts the 00:14:05.760 --> 00:14:07.750 Bible for us to paint that picture. 00:14:07.980 --> 00:14:15.080 How Revelation 21 ends that picture and then look at the guts in between, how it all connects together because the theme 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:18.480 of the Bible is found first couple of chapters of scripture. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:25.680 I mean I can tell you all of Christian theology in the first three chapters of the Bible or at least, I'll say, the main themes of Christian 00:14:25.680 --> 00:14:29.600 theology, first three chapters of the Bible and the end of Revelation, that picture. 00:14:29.640 --> 00:14:35.500 It's how the story unfolds for us, the working out of that history for us. 00:14:35.540 --> 00:14:36.340 It goes like this. 00:14:38.060 --> 00:14:40.960 In Genesis chapter 1, God speaks and things are created. 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:49.180 In fact, the story is told to us poetically and says to us over and over that God said, "Let there be" 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:55.640 and something in his speaking comes into existence, the power of God creating all things intentionally and purposefully. 00:14:56.460 --> 00:15:03.800 Genesis chapter 1, God speaks it exist and on the backend of every time God speaks it didn't says this evening 00:15:03.800 --> 00:15:05.040 and morning the first day. 00:15:05.920 --> 00:15:09.360 Day 1, God speaks, it exists evening and morning the first day. 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.960 Day 2, God speaks evening and morning the second day. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:20.440 The scriptures do that for us in Genesis six times and on the sixth day something very powerful 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:27.760 in our understanding happens that God tells us in Genesis 1:26-27 God made man 00:15:27.760 --> 00:15:28.420 in his image. 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:36.620 The story goes God creates everything and the crown of his creation then becomes human beings that on the sixth day, the last day of his creative work, 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:39.160 God creates man in his image. 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:42.090 In Genesis 1:26 and 27, it says it like this. 00:15:42.380 --> 00:15:44.300 "Let us make man in our image. 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:51.360 In the image of God he made him male and female." God is in the pluralistic triunity let us make man in our image, 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:54.080 in the image of God, he made him male and female. 00:15:55.240 --> 00:16:02.500 When you get to Genesis 2:7, he also shares a little bit more detail of how that takes place and it's a beautiful picture of 00:16:02.500 --> 00:16:03.060 your existence. 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:07.720 In Genesis 2 verse 7, it says in a very intimate way. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:14.860 Rather than just speaking and it exists, when God makes man it says and God formed man. 00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:23.600 While all other creation is spoken into existence, when God makes man he takes from the dirt of the ground and he intimately molds 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:27.180 him very intentional. 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:33.360 Then it says in that same verse, chapter 2 verse 7 that God breathed in him the breath of life and that marks you different than any other created being. 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:41.700 What it's saying to you and I is that different than any other thing created in this world that you have the opportunity to connect to creator God, that God made you 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:48.940 to belong to him, to have relationship with him, which is why our theme, to experience, to transform in relationship with God that transforms our relationship in this world. 00:16:48.940 --> 00:16:50.850 God created us as relational beings. 00:16:51.060 --> 00:16:58.120 Genesis 2 verse 7, "God intimately forms you and God breathes his breath into you." It's as if to saying mouth to mouth, 00:16:58.120 --> 00:16:59.630 that's the picture in the Hebrew. 00:16:59.820 --> 00:17:07.380 The mouth to mouth that breathes life into you in this very intimate way and you become a living being and then something 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:15.220 even further happens here that's even more beautiful in the expression of God's creation that in Genesis 2:2, it 00:17:15.220 --> 00:17:22.220 says, "By the seventh day, God completed his work he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done." 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:30.520 What they're saying is after the six days, God didn't create anymore but rather what he did is he paused, he stopped 00:17:30.520 --> 00:17:33.430 and he rested and he sat on his throne. 00:17:33.900 --> 00:17:35.640 Here's the really cool thing of Day 7. 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:42.940 When you look at the first six days you see it saying God speaks, it exists evening and morning; God speaks, it exists evening and morning. 00:17:43.400 --> 00:17:47.440 When you get to the seventh day, it never says evening and morning. 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:48.720 Why? 00:17:50.380 --> 00:17:57.100 Because in the seventh day when God stopped creating he sat up on his throne and he began to rule. 00:17:58.760 --> 00:18:00.000 That ruling has never ended. 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:03.100 God is king of kings and lord of lords. 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:07.300 We are under the authority of this king. 00:18:08.340 --> 00:18:09.540 There's no ending to that. 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:18.320 God created us and in his kingdom for us to experience relationship with him forever and here's the 00:18:18.320 --> 00:18:21.120 tragedy of it all, man rebelled. 00:18:23.520 --> 00:18:30.600 Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam and Eve, there's this tree and from this tree do not eat because the moment you 00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:31.900 eat you will surely die. 00:18:33.100 --> 00:18:35.800 What death means in the scripture isn't just you go to the grave. 00:18:35.820 --> 00:18:37.700 Death means separated from God. 00:18:37.760 --> 00:18:38.500 You think about this. 00:18:38.500 --> 00:18:45.340 God creates his kingdom, his life, brings it into existence and God is life itself. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:51.660 When you remove yourself from God, you're separating yourself from what is life. 00:18:52.920 --> 00:19:00.660 Genesis 2:17, that's what the fruit represents, Satan shows up and said surely this won't happen, surely you won't die, surely 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:01.840 you'll become like God. 00:19:03.260 --> 00:19:10.490 What the theme of the Hebrew expression is saying is rather than believe that God has your best interest in mind, 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:14.780 why don't you eat of the fruit, you become God and you tell God what's right from wrong. 00:19:16.040 --> 00:19:19.440 It says this, "But from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat. 00:19:19.480 --> 00:19:25.340 From the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Adam and Eve sinned. 00:19:26.860 --> 00:19:31.900 Genesis 3 starts to share that story that when Adam and Eve sinned, they run and they hide from God. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:39.340 I want to be honest and tell you that at that moment when perfect creator God in his wholeness created us for relationship with him and man rejects 00:19:39.340 --> 00:19:44.000 God and runs away and declares themselves to be god, God didn't owe us anything. 00:19:46.060 --> 00:19:51.640 In fact in rebelling into the kingdom in which he created, the only thing that we deserve that God could have given us is punishment. 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:55.560 God would have been just to deliver anything in that moment. 00:19:56.800 --> 00:19:59.660 While God is also a just God, he's a loving God. 00:20:00.520 --> 00:20:06.360 When you read the story of Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve, they sin, they realize they sin, they run from God, they hide. 00:20:06.360 --> 00:20:13.540 They actually clothed themselves in aprons, which is the Hebrew word for soldier's garments and they create the first manmade religion as if to say to God, "God, we got this." 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:18.000 Really, you just rejected life itself. 00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:21.780 What you see in the garden is that God pursues Adam and Eve. 00:20:21.800 --> 00:20:29.040 God says, "Adam, where are you?" God pursues Adam and Eve and in Genesis 3:15, he says to them that 00:20:29.040 --> 00:20:35.040 woman, there will be enmity between you and the serpent, which is Satan who is a representation of the kingdom of darkness. 00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:43.160 He says to the serpent that from this woman will come a seed that will crash the head of the serpent and the head represents kingdom. 00:20:44.620 --> 00:20:51.640 God pursues us for relationship which is why the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:58.860 5:18 "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and 00:20:58.860 --> 00:21:02.960 gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Look what he says in verse 20. 00:21:03.700 --> 00:21:11.000 "We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." The narrative 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:18.160 of the story is told like this, that there is no earning your way back to God and the reason is because you've offended a holy God. 00:21:19.320 --> 00:21:21.440 You can't do anything to bridge that gap. 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:28.440 You need forgiveness and restoration from the one that you have offended and you can do God all day long but 00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:29.850 it's never going to undo sin. 00:21:30.540 --> 00:21:34.160 Once you've sinned against a perfect holy God, that endures for eternity. 00:21:35.060 --> 00:21:42.620 The only way that gap is ever bridged is, one, to reconcile and that is found in Christ, that God has pursued you 00:21:42.620 --> 00:21:46.820 for relationship and God desires that relationship with you even in sin. 00:21:47.640 --> 00:21:53.520 The end of the Bible then tells the story like this, Revelation 21:3-4. 00:21:53.520 --> 00:22:00.540 "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:08.120 and look he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:15.720 and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any death or no longer be any mourning or any crying or any pain, 00:22:15.800 --> 00:22:23.100 the first things have passed away.'" You see in the beginning of the Bible is this creation of which God 00:22:23.100 --> 00:22:30.180 creates you intimately for relationship and God sits upon his throne and then man rejects God, God pursues him and at the 00:22:30.180 --> 00:22:31.820 end of that relation, God restores. 00:22:34.300 --> 00:22:41.660 All that in between in scriptures is how God tells that story of redemption as it unfolds and all of it becomes a communication to 00:22:41.660 --> 00:22:44.760 us inviting us into relationship with him. 00:22:46.620 --> 00:22:52.000 Not because you're impressive, although you were created in his image, but because he is. 00:22:56.900 --> 00:23:01.500 You're not here primarily because of the things that you can do to impress God. 00:23:04.300 --> 00:23:08.700 Like your life isn't about trying to do all these good works to appeal to God so he finally loves you. 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:16.880 There's nothing that you're going to do that's going to impress the one who's capable of doing it far better than you can. 00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:20.180 That's not the reason God created you. 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:23.010 God created you for relationship. 00:23:25.040 --> 00:23:28.200 God created you that you may know him and enjoy him forever. 00:23:29.780 --> 00:23:32.880 That's what Jesus said the greatest in the commandments were love God, love others. 00:23:34.040 --> 00:23:34.960 Now, here's the joy of it. 00:23:34.980 --> 00:23:42.100 When you understand the reason for which you are created and you enjoy that relationship for which you haven't got, it's magnified 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:49.580 in the world around you, meaning, ultimately, in that relationship you end up living a life that glorifies the goodness of who God is because of 00:23:49.580 --> 00:23:53.020 the way he has honored you in the dying for your sin. 00:23:55.080 --> 00:23:59.180 This is the picture when you think about what Daniel is talking about in the resurrection, this is it. 00:23:59.520 --> 00:24:05.800 This is the restoring of what God desires and the picture of the gospel for us. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:11.420 This in a sense is really saying to us this is the greatest love story ever told. 00:24:11.420 --> 00:24:18.520 No one has ever loved you like this to the extent of this sacrifice that you can know and enjoy him for all of eternity and the life that he desires to 00:24:18.580 --> 00:24:18.920 give you. 00:24:20.120 --> 00:24:27.440 When you think about like gathering on Sunday morning and as God's people what our anthem is in this and holding God's 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.140 word and want to say things like Daniel chapter 12. 00:24:30.140 --> 00:24:33.140 What you hold in your hands just think about this for a minute. 00:24:33.840 --> 00:24:40.920 1,500 years, this book took 1,500 years to put together over 40 authors, three continents, 00:24:41.180 --> 00:24:44.820 three languages and one theme. 00:24:46.460 --> 00:24:51.040 God's redemption for you is unbelievable. 00:24:51.600 --> 00:24:58.550 I don't think in my life I could ever write a book because I have this nature within me that it's like I look for the squirrel like, "Oh, there it goes. 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:03.080 Oh, there it goes." If I write a book I'm like there's three sentences into, I'm like, "Let's write a different book now. 00:25:03.300 --> 00:25:11.200 Okay, let's write a different book now." There's no way, 1,500 years carrying a theme, how does that happen other 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:11.900 than divine? 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:21.640 When you just think this in connection to other religious books, there are 66 00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:26.140 manuscripts on different points of history. 00:25:26.940 --> 00:25:32.000 Old Testament manuscripts older than Jesus declaring story. 00:25:33.560 --> 00:25:40.920 That's the picture of what God is pointing Daniel to in this story and then at the last half of this verse or 00:25:41.280 --> 00:25:45.560 the last half of this chapter, God just continuous to reiterate this. 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:46.880 Let me just read this for us. 00:25:47.380 --> 00:25:50.720 I'm going to read the first two verses, highlight the last and then go back. 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:51.200 It says this. 00:25:51.460 --> 00:25:58.940 "From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and abomination of desolation is set up, there 00:25:58.940 --> 00:26:03.140 will be 1,290 days." Again, he's referring to Daniel this three and a half years. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:12.060 From this time that there's this desecration in God's holy place, the end, the 1,290 00:26:12.060 --> 00:26:19.420 days, and he says, "How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days." 00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:21.340 I'll tell you something about that in a minute. 00:26:22.120 --> 00:26:29.160 Then it says, verse 13, "Daniel, as for you …" He's saying, Daniel, this is what's going to happen but look, here's where I want your perspective to 00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:29.300 be. 00:26:29.940 --> 00:26:38.140 "As for you, go your way to the end then you'll enter into the rest and rise again for 00:26:38.140 --> 00:26:45.360 your allotted portion at the end of the age." God again cast Daniel towards 00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:45.940 eternity. 00:26:48.600 --> 00:26:55.720 Just speaking on eternity, sometimes I don't think we as people 00:26:55.720 --> 00:27:02.780 like to consider eternity because it puts us in the dialog of heaven and hell, and sometimes hell makes this 00:27:02.780 --> 00:27:03.400 uncomfortable. 00:27:04.760 --> 00:27:11.860 When you think about those subjects I think it's interesting when you look at the way that the gospels just talk 00:27:11.860 --> 00:27:18.960 about it because when you consider the scope of eternity as Jesus taught about it, Jesus taught about hell twice as much as he taught 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:19.240 about heaven. 00:27:21.080 --> 00:27:21.260 Why? 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:23.430 To freak you out. 00:27:23.460 --> 00:27:23.580 No. 00:27:23.860 --> 00:27:25.040 Why would he do that? 00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:34.480 I think for us when hell enters an arena of a discussion, it really has a way of sobering 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:35.200 us up, doesn't it? 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.800 I've never met a guy … Well, I meet people all the time. 00:27:39.800 --> 00:27:43.420 It's like I'm going to heaven, and heaven, and heaven, and heaven, and they're in heaven, and heaven, and heaven. 00:27:43.940 --> 00:27:46.260 Everybody talks about heaven and just looking forward to that. 00:27:46.840 --> 00:27:52.040 I haven't yet to meet the person be like, "My name is Bob, I'm heading to hell." It's not the subject. 00:27:52.620 --> 00:27:53.690 We don't want to enter into that. 00:27:53.720 --> 00:27:54.980 It makes me uncomfortable to talk about that. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:55.820 I think it should. 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:04.560 No one is walking in the church and was like, "Yes, subject of hell." If this is your first Sunday, maybe you could share that 00:28:04.560 --> 00:28:12.240 story like, "I came to the church, first Sunday was on hell and I was hooked." No one 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:13.280 likes to talk about that. 00:28:13.540 --> 00:28:18.480 I think one of the things it does is it really sobers us up to think critically for a moment. 00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:27.200 Of all the things you could get wrong in life your eternal destiny should 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:27.980 not be one of them. 00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:32.300 You're going to be dead a lot longer than your life. 00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:39.620 Just to have a good grasp on what we're talking about here I think it's worth just taking a look. 00:28:40.660 --> 00:28:44.850 If God created me for relationship and we're discussing this, how do you have it? 00:28:44.980 --> 00:28:52.100 I mean I think it's important just to consider the scope of eternity because as people sometimes we start fighting for our corner of the world 00:28:52.100 --> 00:28:54.220 but it doesn't last. 00:28:55.480 --> 00:29:04.580 Jesus even said, "What is the profit to men to gain the whole world but lose a soul?" You 00:29:04.580 --> 00:29:12.280 talk about heaven and hell, inevitably at some point somebody asks, and 00:29:12.320 --> 00:29:13.240 we've got some people there. 00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:19.240 How can God be good and send people to hell? 00:29:21.900 --> 00:29:29.060 I think there's a few ways to answer that theologically and I don't have time today to dive into all of it but I'll just give us some 00:29:29.060 --> 00:29:30.490 ways to just frame. 00:29:30.980 --> 00:29:33.120 When we talk about heaven and hell, what is it that we're talking about? 00:29:34.660 --> 00:29:36.280 I think there's a way to just approach that question. 00:29:36.300 --> 00:29:40.300 That question is just looking at the end of everything and just spring a question from that. 00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:48.460 I really want to dig a little deeper into the heart of what we're expressing when we talk about heaven and hell and I want to think of a little opposite 00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:51.920 of that question for a moment but let me start by asking this. 00:29:52.540 --> 00:29:53.880 What is heaven and what is hell? 00:29:56.580 --> 00:29:57.420 Anyone thought about that? 00:29:58.820 --> 00:30:00.160 What is heaven and what is hell? 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:04.110 In our culture understanding, we tend to paint a picture of a location. 00:30:05.800 --> 00:30:08.840 Heaven is this place where I want to go and hell is that place where I don't want to go. 00:30:09.620 --> 00:30:12.400 We think of it in terms of location but what makes heaven, heaven? 00:30:14.340 --> 00:30:18.400 It's God's presence. 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:25.820 I remember how we painted the story in the beginning that God is the creator of life and being in his presence therefore 00:30:25.820 --> 00:30:31.800 is where life itself is which is the expression of heaven, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. 00:30:32.060 --> 00:30:39.580 When you read on Revelation chapter 21 just a few minutes ago verses 1 to 4, it says, "And God will dwell among his people and 00:30:39.580 --> 00:30:47.380 there will as a result of that be no more pain, no more suffering, no more death, the first is done away with." The reason 00:30:47.380 --> 00:30:55.440 that the existence of those painful things are wiped away isn't because you have reached the location but 00:30:55.500 --> 00:30:56.880 because you're in his presence. 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:01.920 What makes heaven, heaven is the presence of God. 00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:06.060 Let me ask it this way. 00:31:06.060 --> 00:31:07.680 Rather than say, why would God send you to hell. 00:31:07.700 --> 00:31:10.520 Let me ask you this way, do you think God would force you into heaven? 00:31:13.100 --> 00:31:20.120 Like if you don't want to be there, if God created you for relationship with him but you don't love him, you don't care about him and you don't want 00:31:20.120 --> 00:31:22.580 to be him, do you think God would force you there? 00:31:25.460 --> 00:31:26.360 Here's the reality? 00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:35.260 When you reject God, you reject life and when you reject life, you're rejecting 00:31:35.260 --> 00:31:36.720 what is heaven. 00:31:37.760 --> 00:31:45.780 When you reject God who gives life, which is the picture of what heaven is about you're embracing the opposite of that and 00:31:45.780 --> 00:31:46.420 what is that? 00:31:47.360 --> 00:31:50.480 The absence of God, that is hell. 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:58.600 That's what 2 Thessalonians 1:9 says, "Cast from the presence of God." If you want an eternity with 00:31:58.600 --> 00:32:05.620 God who created you to experience it with him God will give it to you without him, by rejecting 00:32:05.620 --> 00:32:06.180 him. 00:32:06.180 --> 00:32:09.240 Now, the question then becomes why would anyone ever reject that? 00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:17.000 I mean, when you reject God in his presence, which is life, which is heaven, you're embracing 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:18.740 exactly what Satan is about. 00:32:19.620 --> 00:32:22.340 Now, someone looks at that and they say, "Well, I don't like God. 00:32:22.340 --> 00:32:25.510 I don't want to be where God is but I don't want to be where Satan is," and I would say that exactly. 00:32:26.920 --> 00:32:28.660 That's exactly what Adam and Eve did. 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:37.020 What Adam and Eve is they looked at God and they said while Satan was speaking to them, "I want to become my own God and 00:32:37.020 --> 00:32:41.340 I'm going to tell God how to be put in his place so I can rule and reign, declare what's right and wrong. 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:49.940 I think that the reason that we don't embrace that, in rebellion we reject life itself by rejecting God himself, which is the presence of heaven, is 00:32:49.940 --> 00:32:51.630 because we want to declare ourselves god. 00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:57.940 If you ask somebody, "Do you want to go to heaven?" "Oh sure, sure." "Do you want God?" "No, I want to be god. 00:32:59.820 --> 00:33:07.220 I want to rule and reign." When you look at what the expression of what hell is, it's about us in rebellion 00:33:07.220 --> 00:33:08.080 against God. 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:16.340 God has continued to give us the invitation into his presence for eternity and heaven is not heaven 00:33:16.340 --> 00:33:18.020 without Jesus. 00:33:19.380 --> 00:33:26.720 When you think in terms of heaven and hell, what Daniel's saying in this story for us as he's writing it is think 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:30.500 of the eternal perspective and what makes heaven, heaven is the presence of God. 00:33:35.080 --> 00:33:36.220 Is this what is heaven? 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:44.890 I know it's God's presence but what else is involved with that? 00:33:47.140 --> 00:33:54.560 One of my favorite stories in just describing this happens here and I think this is important for us just to consider but Luke 00:33:54.560 --> 00:34:03.620 chapter 23, Jesus on the cross and Jesus is not too long from surrendering 00:34:03.620 --> 00:34:03.960 a spirit. 00:34:06.740 --> 00:34:09.860 As Jesus is being crucified, there're two thieves on either side of him. 00:34:11.320 --> 00:34:14.110 One rejects him and the other one embraces him. 00:34:16.139 --> 00:34:24.020 Jesus gives the thief this promise, he says in Luke 23:23, and, "He said to me, 'Truly, I say to you, today 00:34:24.900 --> 00:34:31.449 you shall be with me in paradise.'" What's that mean? 00:34:33.719 --> 00:34:41.000 When you think about the life of the thief crucified to the cross at last 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:48.159 moments of existence on earth never able to lift a hand to do a single good work 00:34:48.159 --> 00:34:50.520 for God, never baptized. 00:34:51.940 --> 00:34:57.640 God saying to him, "Today, you will be me in paradise," what's God saying? 00:35:00.160 --> 00:35:07.560 Well, if paradise is heaven, he's saying to him that good works don't get you there because 00:35:07.560 --> 00:35:10.370 you weren't created to impress God by the things that you do that are good. 00:35:11.840 --> 00:35:16.980 You can glorify God with your life and you're certainly designed to do that being made in his image but that's not what gets you to heaven. 00:35:18.060 --> 00:35:20.820 Good people don't go to heaven, forgiven people do. 00:35:24.420 --> 00:35:31.800 Jesus looks to this thief and forgives him because this thief turns to God for the relationship in which he was created and 00:35:31.800 --> 00:35:33.720 Jesus gives him the promise you will be with me in paradise. 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:34.680 Now what is paradise? 00:35:36.640 --> 00:35:38.360 Paradise is a Persian word for heaven. 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:44.800 This might give us a little bit of indication of who this thief is and I think it's worthy just to think about what the title thief means in scripture. 00:35:46.200 --> 00:35:47.960 Thief was a generic term in the Bible. 00:35:48.860 --> 00:35:51.340 It didn't just mean a guy who walked past a stand and stole an apple. 00:35:52.380 --> 00:35:55.840 A thief was a term used for really anyone that broke the law in some drastic way. 00:35:56.180 --> 00:35:57.580 Stealing an apple doesn't get you crucified. 00:35:57.820 --> 00:36:00.820 If this guy stole something, it could have been someone's life, it could have been rape. 00:36:02.680 --> 00:36:03.920 Those types of things get you crucified. 00:36:05.700 --> 00:36:08.600 Here's this thief being crucified and he's promised paradise. 00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:18.060 Paradise, Persian word for heaven and in Jesus' day there was this picture of wealthy people 00:36:18.060 --> 00:36:22.440 that they would own this garden sort of like this Garden of Eden type picture. 00:36:22.940 --> 00:36:30.300 If you've ever watched the movie Aladdin, in the story of Aladdin there's a couple of scenes that take place in the garden or outside of her balcony. 00:36:30.460 --> 00:36:32.600 She's got a sweet view, right, Jasmine does. 00:36:33.020 --> 00:36:40.120 At one point in the story Jafar is out in the garden and he pretends or I think it's not Jafar but the parrot of Jafar is out 00:36:40.120 --> 00:36:44.620 in the garden that Gilbert Gottfried horrible voice. 00:36:45.060 --> 00:36:52.100 He's out there and he's got that "aaaaahh" and then he turns into Jasmine and says … he pretends to be Jasmine and Aladdin comes out looking 00:36:52.100 --> 00:36:53.440 for her out in his garden and he's captured. 00:36:54.180 --> 00:36:57.320 That garden scene is a picture of what paradise is. 00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:04.620 That's the menagerie, this place that when people on that day thought about heaven they thought about this perfect garden which 00:37:04.620 --> 00:37:06.200 wealthy people tended to own. 00:37:07.400 --> 00:37:11.910 Jesus in talking to this man using the expression of heaven and he's probably familiar with it, you'll be with me paradise. 00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:14.080 Now here's another interesting thing. 00:37:14.080 --> 00:37:16.140 Paul also teaches a lot about heaven. 00:37:16.280 --> 00:37:18.500 In 2 Corinthians 12:2, he says this. 00:37:19.380 --> 00:37:26.380 "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago whether in body or out of the body I 00:37:26.380 --> 00:37:27.520 do not know, God knows. 00:37:28.540 --> 00:37:32.900 Such a man was caught up into the third heaven." Here's a different word for heaven. 00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:34.200 What is he talking about here? 00:37:35.780 --> 00:37:42.940 Well, I think it's important when you see a term used in another context, what did that term mean in the culture in which he's expressing? 00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:47.080 This term, "third heaven," is a term that Paul is using from Jewish community. 00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:55.540 When the Jews talked about third heaven, if we go back to their time period in which the Bible's written they don't have 00:37:55.540 --> 00:37:55.790 telescopes. 00:37:56.900 --> 00:37:58.380 They're not star trekkies. 00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:00.440 They haven't explored Deep Space 9. 00:38:00.600 --> 00:38:01.820 The force is not with them. 00:38:02.040 --> 00:38:08.040 They look out in the stars and sky and they see what God has made and they worship the Lord in his creation. 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:12.400 When the Jewish would describe heaven, they actually layered it. 00:38:12.940 --> 00:38:14.300 They referred to it as the heavens. 00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:17.880 When you're reading the Old Testament you'll even see this. 00:38:18.140 --> 00:38:20.590 This will be a fun exercise if you read the word heaven in the Old Testament. 00:38:21.160 --> 00:38:27.320 That when they would refer to the place where the birds flew and the clouds were they would refer to that as the first heavens. 00:38:28.140 --> 00:38:34.180 Sometimes when you read heavens in the Old Testament you'll see them describing birds or eagles or clouds, first heavens. 00:38:34.220 --> 00:38:34.830 They'll use the word heaven. 00:38:35.240 --> 00:38:36.650 That's the way that Jesus referred to the first heaven. 00:38:37.120 --> 00:38:44.240 Then there were the stars were and the Jews would refer to that as the second heaven because they were just looking out in the space, this God that created 00:38:44.240 --> 00:38:45.020 them and everything. 00:38:45.380 --> 00:38:50.160 Then when they talked about the presence of God, that was the celestial, that was the third heaven. 00:38:51.260 --> 00:38:56.300 When Jews talked about the presence of God they knew celestially this was the third heaven. 00:38:56.300 --> 00:39:02.780 What Paul is saying here is, listen, guys, I'm not just floating in the clouds, I'm not just up in the stars, this person out of body. 00:39:03.260 --> 00:39:06.280 He was in the celestial experience of God in his kingdom. 00:39:06.340 --> 00:39:13.420 In verse 3, "I know how such a man whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows." 00:39:13.520 --> 00:39:16.000 Look at this, was caught up into what word? 00:39:17.080 --> 00:39:17.560 Paradise. 00:39:18.260 --> 00:39:19.240 What's Paul doing here? 00:39:20.060 --> 00:39:21.680 What Paul is doing is talking to a mixed audience. 00:39:23.140 --> 00:39:27.300 He's thinking about the Jews he's writing to, he's thinking about those that have an idea of heaven from a Persian life. 00:39:27.600 --> 00:39:33.960 He's saying, "Okay, I want all these guys to understand when I'm talking about this experience, this is what heaven was. 00:39:35.880 --> 00:39:40.000 You what he also teaches us or the thief one? 00:39:43.800 --> 00:39:51.060 The thief went straight to presence of God, the celestial kingdom where 00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:51.820 God dwells. 00:39:53.400 --> 00:40:00.680 See in verse 4, Paul's substituting both words for heaven as the same term trying to explain it to two different audiences to have pictures 00:40:00.680 --> 00:40:05.590 of what heaven is just like he promised the thief. 00:40:07.900 --> 00:40:14.900 You are created to have an eternal relationship with God in his presence in the celestial kingdom 00:40:14.900 --> 00:40:15.900 forever. 00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:24.640 When Jesus look at the thief who was hanging on the cross incapable of doing any good work with his life before he met the end, he 00:40:24.680 --> 00:40:31.290 turns to God not because he's good but because God is good. 00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:39.400 He doesn't go to heaven because he's a good person but because he's a forgiven person created for relationship with God forever. 00:40:42.220 --> 00:40:44.580 What does Daniel do here? 00:40:44.580 --> 00:40:51.700 Let me just skip on verse 11 and 12, he says this, "From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination 00:40:51.700 --> 00:40:58.980 of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days." Daniel is referring back to the three and a half years again, 1,290 days, Daniel 00:40:58.980 --> 00:40:59.560 chapter 9. 00:41:00.460 --> 00:41:06.060 Then he says this, "How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days?" What does that mean? 00:41:06.860 --> 00:41:11.660 I will tell you, if you pick a commentary on this, people don't say definitively. 00:41:11.740 --> 00:41:19.000 They more say generally, "Well, it probably means this." Rather than dive in all of the possibilities of 00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:21.100 what this probably means, let me just say it like this first. 00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:25.240 At the end of three and a half years, God will return. 00:41:27.860 --> 00:41:31.940 God will set up our experience in his presence forever. 00:41:32.580 --> 00:41:37.440 I think in a larger sense, this is what he's saying to Daniel, persevere. 00:41:39.820 --> 00:41:47.360 Daniel, persevere with an eternal picture in mind because he says after the three and a half years, look forward to the days that are ahead, this 1,335 00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:49.160 days forty-five days later. 00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:51.440 As for you, go your way to the end. 00:41:52.120 --> 00:41:59.220 Daniel, keep living your life for this goal and then he says, "Then you'll enter into the rest and rise again for your allotted portion." He's 00:41:59.220 --> 00:42:00.400 saying "Okay, Daniel. 00:42:00.460 --> 00:42:08.020 This will take place but here's your perspective, persevere with an eternal picture in mind for 00:42:08.020 --> 00:42:14.300 the believer." God walks with us in adversity and brings us out in the other side. 00:42:15.520 --> 00:42:22.620 I don't just fight for a corner of this worldly kingdom that was never intended to last but 00:42:22.620 --> 00:42:24.660 the eternal kingdom that goes on forever. 00:42:26.560 --> 00:42:30.700 What I'm saying is everyone, get in the corner, let's rock until we just say heaven, heaven, heaven. 00:42:31.310 --> 00:42:32.020 We're not going to do that. 00:42:32.520 --> 00:42:39.060 What I'm saying is in the midst of the life that you live like when we think about eternal perspective we're not saying oh forget it all, heaven, I'm just looking for heaven. 00:42:39.100 --> 00:42:39.450 I'm just looking. 00:42:39.860 --> 00:42:47.120 I'm saying as you look to the end, as he's telling Daniel in verse 13, live out for the glory of God because one day you're going to meet God in 00:42:47.120 --> 00:42:48.280 that eternal picture. 00:42:50.140 --> 00:42:57.530 One of the people that I think in life that just did this beautifully, a man by the name of William Wilberforce who's in British parliament, 00:42:57.560 --> 00:43:03.650 served his whole life as a politician and he lived his life fighting for the abolition of slavery. 00:43:04.540 --> 00:43:11.600 William Wilberforce, godly man, lived close to parliament, he would walk every day, he would quote Psalm 1:19 as he would go to work and return 00:43:11.600 --> 00:43:13.480 from work, love the Lord. 00:43:13.480 --> 00:43:18.970 Ten years into this battle he still couldn't win the victory and he just felt demoralized, he felt defeated. 00:43:19.600 --> 00:43:20.600 He goes to his Bible. 00:43:20.800 --> 00:43:21.870 He's flipping through his Bible. 00:43:21.880 --> 00:43:24.360 As he's flipping through a piece of paper falls out. 00:43:24.700 --> 00:43:30.860 That piece of paper was written by John Wesley to him as he saw his friend laboring right before John Wesley died. 00:43:31.960 --> 00:43:38.780 William Wilberforce picks up that paper at that moment that he's tired and frustrated and he reads what Wesley wrote and he said this. 00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:46.260 "Unless the divine power has raised you up, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that 00:43:46.260 --> 00:43:52.780 abominable practice of slavery, which is the scandal of religion of England and of human nature. 00:43:53.300 --> 00:44:00.180 Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:08.200 But of God before you, who can be against you or all of them together stronger than God, 00:44:09.260 --> 00:44:11.780 all being weary of well doing. 00:44:11.780 --> 00:44:18.960 Go on in the name of God and in the power of his might." The crazy part if you read 00:44:19.120 --> 00:44:26.280 about William Wilberforce's story is eventually his labors were not in vain that they passed the bill to 00:44:26.280 --> 00:44:27.100 abolish slavery. 00:44:27.160 --> 00:44:28.590 I think it was in 1834 in England. 00:44:31.300 --> 00:44:36.120 William Wilberforce died a year before that bill was ever enacted. 00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:39.440 He never saw it happen. 00:44:41.940 --> 00:44:45.200 When he got to heaven what do you think God said. 00:44:47.100 --> 00:44:55.220 "Oh William, I'm all about accomplishment and since you've lived your life for one thing and you couldn't even do that, I'm sorry, you got to go to the bad place." No, 00:44:57.180 --> 00:44:59.700 he just looked at a life that was faithful to the glory of his God. 00:45:01.540 --> 00:45:08.620 "Well done, well done." Now we tend to measure the success of our life by 00:45:08.620 --> 00:45:09.660 our accomplishments and our accolades. 00:45:12.220 --> 00:45:13.650 I think God measures by our faithfulness. 00:45:16.860 --> 00:45:19.720 I think about living the Christian life where I am. 00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:25.940 You know one of the hardest blows for me is other Christians. 00:45:29.820 --> 00:45:32.680 People claiming to know Jesus but man, they're living like the devil. 00:45:35.140 --> 00:45:36.340 Tears me up inside. 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:39.920 I want to live for his glory. 00:45:41.940 --> 00:45:48.830 Maybe some of the times it tears me up is because I find myself doing it, I don't know but I don't want to shame his name. 00:45:49.100 --> 00:45:50.300 I love the Lord. 00:45:50.360 --> 00:45:52.300 I love what he's done for us. 00:45:52.300 --> 00:45:53.900 I love what he's doing here. 00:45:54.080 --> 00:46:01.290 I want to be a part of that divine story that God is writing in all of us as we just live that with the eternal perspective 00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:02.800 in mind. 00:46:04.540 --> 00:46:06.100 This is where Daniel ends. 00:46:07.320 --> 00:46:14.840 You think Daniel's in this cultural collision and he's saying to us, "So are you," so are you and this 00:46:14.840 --> 00:46:21.940 world, it's going to war against who God is and sometimes we just have to fight for the pieces of it but look, live with the eternal 00:46:21.940 --> 00:46:22.960 perspective in mind. 00:46:22.980 --> 00:46:28.680 Everything isn't going to go your way but it's okay, you can't dictate everything and you can't control everything. 00:46:28.680 --> 00:46:30.320 What you're in charge of is you. 00:46:31.340 --> 00:46:32.180 Here's what you can do. 00:46:34.040 --> 00:46:41.120 Live for his glory, that eternal picture of such a godly king who wants 00:46:41.120 --> 00:46:49.300 to know you and you know him and enjoy that presence forever and the beauty of it all, it doesn't start when you go to heaven, it 00:46:49.300 --> 00:46:49.790 starts now. 00:46:51.400 --> 00:46:54.200 God created you to know him now. 00:46:56.100 --> 00:47:01.120 Live in the picture of that perfection of which Jesus has done for you. 00:47:02.780 --> 00:47:08.470 Rest in the hope of where we're going in the paradise of his presence forever, just shine.