The Church in Exile

 Okay, dear friends, if you would grab a Bible and open with me to the Book of Daniel 6.

There are major and minor prophets in Scripture. They're not called major and minor because some are more important than others. They're called major and minor because of the length of those books. And Daniel is the last of the major prophets just before Hosea, Joel, and Amos. And so Daniel is after Ezekiel We're in Daniel chapter six.

One of the challenges as elders of the church moving into a new building is to help orient you into a new space that will feel very different than this one. And one of the ways that we are doing that is by helping you understand Some of the architecture of the new building, which is built in to help us every Sunday, think about the whole of redemptive history.

And so in the hammer beam trusses in the new buildings, when you get there, you'll see a hammer beam truss that speaks of the garden the church formed in Genesis. And then you'll see another trust that speaks of Abraham, the church chosen or elect by God in Genesis chapter 22. And then you'll see a third hammer beam trust that speaks of the burning bush, the church called Moses in Exodus chapter 3.

And then you'll see a trust that speaks of David, King David, the church gathered. And we looked last week at 2 Samuel chapter 7. And this week we come to the exile, a trust that speaks of Daniel. It's a truss that you'll see is carved with a lion on it, much like medieval trusses were carved back in the day.

And you see a picture of the design of that truss at the bottom of your sermon handout notes, and also in the coloring sheet. The Book of Daniel is an incredibly rich and beautiful book. Some of you Bible scholars, You might remember that the book of Daniel in chapters 1 and 2 is written in Hebrew. And then in verse 4 of chapter 2, it switches to the lingua franca of Babylon.

That is the common language of the Babylonians at the time, and that was Aramaic. And so from verses 2, 4, all the way to the very end of chapter 7, verse 28, it's in Aramaic. And then it switches back from chapters 8 to 12, back to Hebrew. Where we're going to find ourself in the reading this morning is in Daniel chapter 6.

And the book of Daniel teaches us how to have patience and hope amidst hostile powers. By the time we come to Daniel chapter 6, you find a man named Daniel, the namesake of the book, who has been brought out of Jerusalem during the first deportation of Israel by the Babylonians when they took over in 586 BC.

He was part of the royal family. He and three of his friends, who you may know by the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. came into Babylon and they were there to serve the king. And they rose in the ranks of the wise men of Babylon. And they suffered great persecution at the hand of their faithfulness.

And when you come to Daniel chapter 6, you see what is one of the most memorable stories of all of Scripture, the story of Daniel in the lion's den. And so would you stand with me as we read God's word this morning from Daniel chapter 6, this little vignette into the larger story of Daniel in the lion's den, beginning at verse 19.

And we'll read through. Verse 23. This is God's Word. Men and women have died to translate this Bible into your mother tongue of English. Let's not take it for granted, friends.

Then at the break of day the king arose, that is King Darius, and went in haste to the den of lions. And as he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve, continually been able to deliver you from the lions?

Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions mouths, and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him. And also before you, O king, I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but God's Word stands forever. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Please. Father, all of our thoughts are known to you, even this very moment, and so, Father, would you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, in the presence of your Son, in worship, focus our affections and our attention.

Father, our attention spans have been cut short by so many distractions in culture. Would you give us your Holy Spirit's ability to hear the beauty of the gospel out of this text and to be changed by it, by the power of your Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. In the early 20th century, there was a Scottish missionary.

His name was John Patton, who had decided to leave the warmth and of hearth and home in Scotland and go to an island that was renowned for its dangerous inhabitants. The island was called the New Hebrides Islands and its inhabitants were known for their cannibalism. Now cannibalism, for those of you who don't know that word, kiddos, is when people choose to not only eat other animals, but they also choose to eat human beings.

It is immoral, it is sinful, it is gross, but it is real. And John Patton wrote that many times his life was in danger in the New Hebrides Islands. Can you imagine no husbands taking your family to an island like the New Hebrides back then, the turn of the 20th century? And being surrounded by men who were struck by your appearance.

Waking up and seeing club and spear. At your face one time, John Patton wrote in his journal, without the abiding awareness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else in the world would've preserved me from losing my mind. It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after 25 years.

that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smiles of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket and club or spear were being leveled against my life. In the midst of imminent danger, Patton believed that his life was in God's hands and that nothing could happen to him without God's sovereign command.

And this kind of resolve in the life of a missionary like John Patton, this kind of opposition that he faced comes from a deep understanding, and I wonder if you know it, of who God is and what God has promised us as his people. Because John Patton's mission wasn't merely about personal survival, but it was about the advancement of God's kingdom in a hostile territory.

And his endurance reminds us of the man in the Bible named Daniel, who also lived in exile and lived under a hostile government, who understood that his life was also not his own, that his life belonged, every bit of it, to God. I wonder if you know it.

In Daniel 6, verses 19 through 23, we see a picture of God's faithfulness to his covenant people, in, even in the midst of the most trying of circumstances. Now, some of you know the story of the book of Daniel. I'm gonna give it a go for the next three minutes, so here we go. Daniel and his friends were taken out of their home country of Israel, and they were called to serve the Babylonian king.

Imagine if somebody were to walk in and you were to slowly see the degradation of this culture, and they were to take us all, and they were to march us across the United States to Canada, and they were to make us learn French. They were to cause us to call us to speak a different language. Some of you are like, yes, finally, I can, I, you speak French, but the rest of us don't.

And you were called to then speak a different language that you did not know. In this case. They were called to speak Aramaic. And Daniel and his friends were forced to study and learn the ways of Babylon. They were educated in a way to try to diminish their Jewishness and to promote their new Chaldean way of life.

And David and his friends refused to yield their religious commitments to the culture of Babylon. And his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, were thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to bow down to a statue. But in that fiery furnace, as you may know from the story, they threw three men into the furnace and the king looked down, King Nebuchadnezzar.

And who did he see? He saw not three, but he saw four. And when they pulled the men out of the fiery furnace, they noticed that none of their clothes were singed. Their hair didn't smell like smoke. There was no trace of the fire with them. And they wondered, who's that fourth man in there? And the king says, it looks like it's one like the son of man.

Who was that person? It was the Lord Jesus Christ who saved those men out of that fiery furnace. He was pulled out of the, they were pulled out of the fiery furnace, and then many days later, the wise men of Babylon said to the king, a new king, the third administration under whom Daniel served, and not just a new king, but now a new country, because the Medes have taken over the Babylonians.

This king's name was King Darius. Daniel came into the country under Nebuchadnezzar. He died. His son, Belshazzar, ruled. Belshazzar died, and the Medes took over the whole country. So now we're not speaking French. Now we're speaking Spanish. And Darius was convinced by a group of wise men in his cabinet, Hey, you should make a law, there should be a law, because we're jealous of Daniel.

And the law is that anybody who prays to any other god except you, O King Darius, should suffer and should die in the lion's den. And Darius loved the self acclamation and said, Sure, let's make a law that says that. And then, what did Daniel do? But Daniel went home, and he opened his window, as he always did, and he prayed three times a day.

And they brought Daniel before the king, and they said, King, isn't it true that you just made a law that we can't bow down, or we can't serve any other god, or pray to any other god but you? And the king says, Yes, it is true. I just signed the decree. Well, then here is a young man, a man, who refuses to bow down to you and bows down to his own god.

And Darius loved Daniel, and he knew he had been tricked. But because the law was king, he had to be faithful to that law. And so he took Daniel, and he did exactly what he had decreed, and he threw Daniel into the lion's den. And there Daniel is, as we read. Daniel is in the den of the lions, and he certainly is going to die.

Nobody escapes the lion's den. And the king that morning, notice in the exposition of the text, Notice what King Darius does, he says. Then at the break of day, the King, king Darius arose and he went and hasted the den of the lions. He runs to the lion's den to see if Daniel has truly been saved. And isn't it an interesting point of the story to find Daniel in exile under persecution, still being faithful to his covenant, keeping God Yahweh, the king of Israel,

and David has great hope, even in the midst of the lions. Do you? Because friends, it is it is no secret that in today's world we are in what some sociologists have called a negative world. Do you know that term Aaron Ren has coined the term a negative world and a magazine called First Things and what Aaron Ren and others have argued is that between the years of 1994 and 2014, we lived in a neutral world as Christians.

Where you could climb the heights of civil society. You could be in whatever realm of power you wanted to be with very little opposition. It was neutral toward Christians. But around 2014 until the present day, we are in what many call a negative world. Which means that it begins to cost you to be a Christian.

in certain circles of power. And don't you see this all the time? Now, it's easy to see this when you read AP articles in the newspaper. And I would encourage you to focus more on those articles that are written by local staff writers than the AP articles in the local newspaper, and get as local as we can as we live out the gospel in this area of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

But isn't it interesting that we find ourselves more and more ostracized, more, more removed from society? We find membership of the church less and less valued. In fact, many surveys have shown that the most conservative areas of this country, you pick the most conservative area. We might, in fact, just be in the one of the most conservative areas in this country at places like, Dallas or Atlanta, for example.

And only 25 percent of those people in those cities Only 25 percent go to church more than 12 times a year. That's shocking.

We live in a negative world, where it begins to cost us something. When Lord and I moved here, One of the things that really took us aback was how how many people claim to be believers in Oklahoma. When we lived in New Jersey, there was something about the nearness and the dearness of our small church, because we all got up early and drove to church together, and there's a kind of a sense of unique community among those at Hope Presbyterian Church in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

And it's funny, when I drive to church now, I kind of feel the same thing.

Do you?

And there's two huge temptations for the church, just like there were for Daniel on that day. That's right. to respond to a negative world. Either we can withdraw from the world, and we can go silo ourself up and live parallel lives. Or we can assimilate into it so much so that our commitments to the Lord Jesus Christ just seem to get so watered down, there's almost nothing left of it.

But Daniel shows us a third way. And that is to be faithful to your covenant. Holding high His covenant promises to us and engaging the culture with the gospel in faithfulness, even and especially amidst the persecution of the church. Let me take you deeper into the text through the exposition of it and just show you what happens here.

Darius runs to the the den, and he says, Servant of the living God. Notice he cries out, Servant of the living God. In a word full of idols and other gods, Darius even recognizes Daniel's uniqueness. Has your God, whom you serve continually. It was obvious to King Darius that Daniel was different. He was one of the wise men, Daniel, in the Babylonian, among the Babylonian youth.

And he recognized something different about him. I don't know if people recognize something different about you at your place of work. When you do your expense reports, they're honest. When nobody is looking, you're no different. You lead lives of full integrity, whether you are in the spotlight or in the shadows.

You serve the Lord with the whole of your heart, no matter what the task is, however menial it is, however you'll be rewarded, you serve Him. You aren't motivated only by your year end bonus, but you're motivated by the work itself. To do it as unto the Lord, knowing that He is the one who sees you.

In verses 21 and 22, Daniel says to the king, O king, live forever! Daniel, of course, was faithful to his covenant God, and yet he still used the Babylonian titles that he had been taught in his education. O King, great and mighty are you! He was kind to the king. He didn't kick against the goads. He knew enough for the culture to know the language to speak.

O King, live forever! My God has sent his angel to shut the lion's mouth, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him, and also before you, verse 22. O King, and I have done to you no harm. Daniel's deliverance was not about personal survival, it was about a testimony to God's faithfulness.

And don't you know that your life is the same?

Those of you who are in high school, don't you know that your life is the same? Like, your life right now, your job is to be a good student and to study hard and prepare for the career or the calling that God has given you. But He has given you beginning glimpses of that, even if you're young, even if you're in elementary school still.

He is beginning to shape you and give you gifts that you are experiencing right now. Some of the gifts that I use in my role as a minister, I began to see when I was in third, fourth, and fifth grade. And He is shaping you and He is molding you and He is calling you to live in a different way. Not for the sake of being different, but for the sake of being faithful to the amazing truth that God has promised you.

That He is going to come, and He is going to be faithful to His promise, and He is going to not just destroy the world and start over, but He is going to redeem the world because heaven comes down to earth. And the earth is going to be renewed in a beautiful way. And He's going to use you and your unique callings now to extend His glory and His kingdom right where where you are in the law office, on the tennis court, on the board, in the classroom, at home.

In the same way, the church is to be blameless before God. Not because of our own efforts, but we are blameless because of Christ's righteousness. Amen? What does that mean? It means that we, as God's people, aren't perfect. When you walk into this church, if you're new here, we're so glad you're here. Look at the room.

It's full of abundance. bunch of sinners. Welcome to the club. And we've been redeemed by the finished work of Jesus because we believe that we could not earn God's favor and merit, but God gave his one and only son for us. And not only does he forgive us of our sins and our belief, but he has regenerated our hearts, he has given us a new identity, and he has covered us with his righteousness.

So that when God the Father looks at us, he doesn't see sinful Pastor Blake When he looks at you, he doesn't see sinful John, or Kevin, Lisa, Paul. He sees the spotless glory and righteousness of his son, King Jesus. And that, therefore, frees us up to be able to live faithfully in the midst of persecution, and, quite frankly, to expect it as his church in the 24th century.

Notice in verse 23, it says that the king was exceedingly glad. Because Daniel had made such an impact on that king, he was exceedingly glad. Because he was sad that, though he had to be faithful to the law that he made, and met that he had to execute justice, even on one whom he loved, Daniel. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him.

Why? Because, why? Because he had trusted in his God. And if you go on and read Daniel, which I encourage you to do, those who had made the law and the decree, justice was served because they and their family, their entire family were thrown into the lion's den. And all of a sudden those lions were really hungry.

And it says that their bones were broken and snapped as soon as they went in. Miraculous. In one second, mouths are closed, and in another, they are devouring. They are devouring the very ones who set Daniel. Which should be encouraging to you, because it should cause us to have less fear and to have more hope.

Because God will execute justice one day, someday, over the ends of the earth. So that you don't need to be the one that retaliates, oh Christian. You are the one who walks faithfully.

And so just as Daniel trusted amidst opposition, what are we to do as a church? The church's mission in exile is empowered by Christ. And there are at least three ways we can apply this this morning. Number one, we practice faithful presence. We practice faithful presence. In a hostile world, empowered by Jesus's faithfulness.

Daniel's story, of course, doesn't just point us to be those who follow the good example of a man who is remarkable named Daniel. It points us to the greater Daniel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was the one who was truly thrown into the lion's den, except he wasn't rescued by his God. He was killed. Not a bone was broken in Jesus body on the cross, but nevertheless, He shed His blood for you.

Not for the person next to you only, but for you. And I wonder if you know it. Have you taken it in? Do you allow it to empower you to stand in opposition when you feel persecuted at school for your faith? When you feel persecuted at work for your beliefs, when you find yourselves on the outs of civil society, should you be surprised?

No! Because we serve the one who is coming and has promised to redeem all of the world and yet we live in the midst of a world that is ruled by the prince of the power of the air, Satan himself. And so that's why we need community groups. That's why we need each other. to remind each other of what the truth is, because I know your stories, and you've told them to me in confidence.

I can't repeat them, and we'll die with them. But some of you are going through some amazing challenges and opportunities for you to throw in the towel, and you're not. And I just want you to know that Jesus is at the Father's right hand right now, saying, look at my children. Don't you see them? Don't you see them?

Don't you see how they're being faithful? And He's singing over you with His love. That's why we give you that benediction every week. The Lord your God is in your midst. He's mighty to save. He rejoices over you with gladness because He is bragging to you, to the angels. Look at my children. Look at Trinity.

Look how faithful they're being in midst of all the temptations they have to wander from the faith.

We are called to be faithful in midst of a hostile world empowered by Jesus faithfulness. We are exiles that we are not called to withdraw. Amen. And we're not called to assimilate, but we are called to engage the culture. What does that mean? It means that we fight for the sanctity of human life. It means that we have radical hospitality toward the immigrant and the stranger.

It means that we promote God's creational norms in matters of sexuality and marriage. It means that we take stands for what God's Word clearly teaches in a way that brings honor and glory to Him, even when it doesn't make sense in the eyes of the world. Of course it wouldn't. Because we are ruled by one who promises to redeem the world, even though it's fallen in sin, and he will one day, he will one day redeem it completely.

Not only are we to live faithfully in a hostile world, despite whatever cost to our popularity, or to our influence in the eyes of the world, but secondly, we're also to trust in God's sovereignty, because we are grounded, grounded, in Christ's victory. It's okay to not fight culture wars, O Christian. We're grounded in Christ's victory.

It's okay to not be right in every argument because we're grounded in Christ's victory.

There was a group of people who were talking about the role of the church. Some were believers and some were not believers. And they were thinking, what is it that the church, we long for the church to be. We long for the church to demonstrate as they trust in Jesus's, Christians would say, we believe in his victory.

What do you hope? And Christians and non Christians got together and they thought, you know what, we would expect and hope the church would have a renewed sense of what it means to be human. That they are demonstrating for us what it means to be human in a world created by the Lord.

We hope the church models what it means to listen well. We've heard them speak loud and clear for many years. What does it mean for them to listen well? We hope the church can debate and disagree well, even within their ranks. That they can fight for truth and not victory. Because we're grounded in Christ's victory.

What would it be like for Trinity to model humility? It doesn't mean that we let people run over us. It doesn't mean we think less of ourselves. It just means that we think about ourselves less.

What does it mean for us to model an attractive community? Whenever we have our community groups and we invite our neighbors over just to be part of us. What does that look like? Who among your neighbors needs to be invited in? Don't you see that is some of the ways that we engage culture in a hostile world without withdrawing from it or assimilating into it?

What does it mean, this is a tough one, to model for the world what it means to process suffering and live with wounds?

Some of you have some pretty big wounds. A biblical counselor was telling me recently that their most effective clients are the ones to whom they can share their wounds. That they share out of the brokenness of their own life what Jesus has done for them. That's true of so much of life in ministry, isn't it?

That so much of your effectiveness as a Christian and engaged in the culture comes out of the wounds that you've experienced. This group of people, Christian, non Christian together, They thought together, and they said, what would it mean for the church to model grace? To really model grace. That means they welcome people, no matter what they look like, into their community, no matter how they act, into their community, and they pour grace all over them.

And they welcome them. Oh, they love them so well. And yet, they stand true to their conviction. Amen. And that means life is messy. And I hope that Trinity is always a messy church. And there's going to be a temptation when you're worshiping under the beauty of those hammer beam trusses next door one day, when you're going to think, Oh my gosh, I need to dress differently.

No, you don't. I need to act. No, you don't. You need to come as a broken sinner to the foot of the cross week after week after week and let the Holy Spirit do His work in your life. And we do it together. Daniel was thrown into the lions den by himself, but we as a church are thrown in it We are called to be faithful, to demonstrate faithful presence in a hostile world because of Jesus faithfulness.

We are called to trust in God's sovereignty because we are grounded in Christ's victory. And thirdly, we are called to go and be a witness to the world empowered by Christ's commission. The missions team is trying to help us do that this morning and pointing us to those who we serve and help support overseas and in our local community.

And earlier when Scott, I had to chuckle when Scott said, Hey, if you, would you please stand if you've been a missionary before? And I just thought, Oh, wouldn't it be great if everybody stood up? Because of course, while you haven't given yourself to vocational ministry. You, nevertheless, are still missionaries, aren't you?

I wonder if you own that. If you see yourself as such. If you're able to model humility, you're able to disagree well, you're able to be a countercultural community for the common good, O Trinity Presbyterian Church. The story of Daniel and the lion's den is the story of God's faithfulness, even amidst profound opposition.

And notice, if you know the book of Daniel, then you know that Daniel led through four administrations of kingdoms. He led through Nebuchadnezzar, Who took him out of Israel. He led through his son, Belshazzar. Then he led through the Medes, conquering the Babylonians under King Darius. And then later he leads under Cyrus, the Persians who conquered the Medes.

Notice Daniel's faithfulness continues even though different people were in power. Do yours. And are you able to be a faithful citizen in this country? Which means that we live out our civic responsibilities, that we vote, that we care about those things in our local community. that we fight for those who need fighting for, that we do so unashamedly, and yet we are radical.

So that when people look at us, they go, man, they love the unlovable. It seems as though they must be this way. And yet they care so much for those issues that so many of the people over here care about. And you say it's because we're committed to the gospel and we expect opposition and we demonstrate his faithful presence.

Over a long period of time consistently together, we trust in his sovereignty because our sovereign, our hope, is grounded in his victory. And we go and we are witnesses to the world because of Christ's commission. Go be my disciples. Be the extension of the kingdom in your own spheres. There are lots of stories we could tell throughout church history of others.

Ian, who lived one 60 to two 40, who said, the more often that we are mowed down by the hostile powers, the more in number we grow. There is a a Japanese artist who you may know, Mako Fujimora. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. And Mako uses this amazing technique of taking broken vessels in this Japanese pot.

Art, it's called Kintsugi. And he takes these broken vessels and he puts them back together with intricate detail and he fixes them up. And after they are put back together, they are far more dynamic and beautiful and even stronger through this technique than they were before.

Mako says that treasured as objects that surpassed their original use for usefulness. We move into a realm of beauty brought on by the Kintsugi Master. Thus our brokenness and light of the wounds, and as Christians, we know of Christ, are still visible even long into our life. Jesus's wounds at the resurrection were still visible, weren't they?

Why? Because he's a model for us of how he ministered even through his wounds after his resurrection. And so also do you. The wounds of divorce for some of you are deep. The wounds are broken. Relationships with your kids are deep. And Jesus, who is the master Kintsugi artist puts you back together in a beautiful way.

And he calls you through the opposition in a hostile world to trust in him that his promises are true. And I wonder if you know him. We may not face the spears, the clubs, the cannibalism that John Patton and his family faced in the early 20th century, but we face an opposition nevertheless all our own.

And it is ours, O Trinity Presbyterian Church, to embrace it and to engage it. To not withdraw from it and run scared, but not also to assimilate into it, as though we bow the knee to the gods of our culture. We are Christians. Amen? Called to stand strong as Daniel in the lion's den did. And when you see that hammer beam trust over you in worship in that new building, You think about the fact that all of our lives, there are seasons of the church to live in, and we may be in a season of great opposition and hostility, and yet we remain a faithful presence in the world for the Lord's glory, and not only for our own good, but for His kingdom, and His name, and His power.

And when you can live like that, you will find that your joy runs far deeper than if you ever tried to build your own little kingdom in itself. And the secret to that is that you look to Jesus, the true and better Daniel, who has given his life for you in the ultimate lion's den of the cross. And he emerged from that den, the empty tomb, alive, with wounds to show the world, to minister in His name out of the wounds that we ourselves experience in the midst of the oppositions that we face.

Hallelujah. Come to this table in faith, seeking the elixir, the balm, the blood and body of the Lord Jesus to strengthen you. In the midst of the courage that you need to face opposition in a hostile world today, knowing that we are grounded in Christ's victory, that we can trust in His sovereign care over our life.

And as we confess, not a hair can fall from your head, friends, without your Heavenly Father's sovereign command. Let's pray.

Father, I pray that this outpost of your kingdom called Trinity Would exist for your glory, and then in our mission to make your name known throughout all of the earth, would you help us, like Daniel, to trust in your covenant faithfulness to us? Knowing that, Jesus, you have already accomplished everything we need, would you, Lord, help us, when we are tempted to lose our minds in this culture that seems so rapidly to be leaving the gospel, to stand together on the truth of your word, With less fear and more hope, less anxiety and more confidence, knowing that You, Lord Christ, will come again as You've promised.

And we pray that when we face the lion's dens of our days, that we might look to You, and know that even if You choose not to save us out of that situation, and we die, even for Your namesake, we pray that we would be those who die in hope. Because we know that we have something far greater as Your children.

And we pray all these things. In the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Would you give generously of your tithes and offerings as the Lord leads you.