Jesus, Saved from the Lions Den?

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our first reading this evening is from the prophet

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Daniel, chapter 6, verses 1 -27. And it reads, It pleased

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Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials to whom

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Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give an account, so that the king might suffer no loss.

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Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him.

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And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom.

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But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.

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Then these men said, We shall not find any ground for complaint against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his

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God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him,

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O King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom and prefects and satraps and counselors and governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you,

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O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the

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Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and an injunction.

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When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.

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He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his

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God as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found

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Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction,

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O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within 30 days except to you,

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O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing stands fast according to the law of the

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Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king,

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Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

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Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed, and his mind was to deliver

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Daniel, and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by an agreement to the king and said to the king,

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Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.

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Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, May your

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God, whom you serve, continually deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lord's, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

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Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

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Then at daybreak, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions, and he came near to the den where Daniel was.

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He cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living

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God, has your God, whom you serve, continually been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king,

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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,

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O king. I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.

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So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his

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God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions.

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They, their children, their wives, and before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

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Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all of the earth. By the way, this was written to you.

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Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble in fear before the

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God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.

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He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved

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Daniel from the power of the lions. This is our first reading. Our second reading is from Acts chapter 8, verses 26 through 35, and it reads,

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Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

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This is a desert place. And he rose and he went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the

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Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet

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Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading

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Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, Well, how can

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I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this.

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Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers, he is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

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In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation, for his life was taken from the earth?

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And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?

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Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

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In the name of Jesus. So, like I mentioned, today is the third

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Wednesday in Advent, and it also happens to be December 17th, which is the day that the church historically has remembered the

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Old Testament prophet Daniel. Now it is because of the church's historic tradition that I chose to preach on Daniel 6, and the all too familiar kind of Sunday school story of Daniel in the lion's den.

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But in keeping with the sermons that I have been delivering during our midweek Advent services,

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I will be showing you how to find Jesus in this story. And as you are about to find out,

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Jesus is hiding in this story in plain sight. But before we look at our text from Daniel, let's first revisit our text from the book of Acts and pay close attention to what

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Philip does with the question that's posed to him by the Ethiopian eunuch. Now, here's our text again.

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Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise, go toward the south, to the road that goes down toward Jerusalem to Gaza.

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This is a desert place. And he rose and he went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the

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Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of her treasure. Now, quick note. You think circumcision is rough.

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Yeah, working for a royal official who happens to be a female in these days, if you were a man, involves something a lot more than circumcision.

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Now, this is kind of important in this sense because the Mosaic Covenant in Deuteronomy 23, verse 1, makes it very clear that people who are eunuchs cannot be part of the

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Lord's assembly. They have to stay outside in the court of the Gentiles. They cannot be brought in to full membership in Israel.

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Here's what it says. No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the

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Lord. So the fact that God literally sends Philip to go and preach the gospel to this man is a huge deal, one that cannot be underestimated or overestimated as to its importance.

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It's ginormous. Because basically, this is a man who cannot, by the

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Mosaic Covenant, have full rights worship rights within Israel. And God himself sends

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Philip to go and preach the gospel to him, showing that those who have been on the outside by the law are now being brought in through the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross.

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So this Ethiopian eunuch, he had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet

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Isaiah. And the Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and join his chariot. So Philip ran to him, heard him reading

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Isaiah the prophet, and asked, how do you understand what you are reading? Or do you understand what you're reading?

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He said, well, how can I unless someone guides me? It's kind of an important thing. The faith is passed on from people who know sound doctrine to those that teach sound doctrine.

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And those men rise up, and God makes them teachers to teach sound doctrine, the faith once delivered to the saints. So talking about the importance of hearing

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God's word rightly taught. And it's rather fascinating here. If you understand Orthodox Judaism of today, this is not a text that they like.

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This passage from Isaiah, they don't like it at all. In fact, they've recast it so that the suffering servant there in Isaiah 53 is not the

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Messiah. Instead, it's the people of Israel themselves or the Jews because of the suffering that they've experienced via the

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Holocaust and things like that. So they've retooled it in order to get Jesus out of it. So how can

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I understand it unless someone guides me? So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture he was reading was this.

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Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before it shears his silence, so he opens not his mouth.

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In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation for his life is taken from the earth?

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So Eunuch asks, About whom, I ask, does this prophet say this?

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About himself or someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

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Now what we've been doing midweek here in Advent is I've been walking you through, and believe me when I tell you, tip of the iceberg.

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You can't do this in four weeks. You can't hit it all. But we've been looking at all of these passages in the

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Old Testament in preparation for the arrival of the Messiah during the season of Advent that look at Christ in all of these

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Old Testament passages. And this is a startling passage. It actually begins in Isaiah 52, verse 13, and then continues for 12 verses in Isaiah.

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Let me give you some highlights. Here's what it says, Isaiah 52, verse 13, Behold, my servant shall act wisely.

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He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

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So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told them, they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand.

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Who has believed what he heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

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He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

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He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. As one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

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Surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

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But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

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And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.

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And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This passage is so clearly talking about Christ's crucifixion and what it accomplished and why

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Jesus was suffering that many people oftentimes refer to this passage as the fifth gospel.

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That's how clear this is. And so you get the idea here. When we look into the Old Testament and we're looking for Jesus, he's all over the place.

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So with this knowledge, with this knowledge, now let's look back at Daniel chapter 6.

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And what I'm going to do, if you kind of think of it this way, those of you who have little girls who have long hair and you braid their hair,

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I'm going to braid this story with a few gospel texts. And you'll begin to see what's going on here.

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And it's kind of actually really amazing. So we'll begin. Daniel chapter 6, verse 1.

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Ah, nothing like bureaucracy. Just got to praise God for it, right?

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Kingdom of the left, necessary because of the fall. So then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him.

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Now, it's kind of odd to have a human being like all of us who is a sinner like all of us being described in so blameless ways.

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You know what I'm saying? But see, that's kind of the point because if you've ever been exposed to that teaching, you know, those teaching series, you need to dare to be a

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Daniel. Yeah, I've got a problem with this errorless and faultless thing.

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You know, I'm full of faults. And the older I get, my brain doesn't work the same way.

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You know, if anything, you know, if I were Daniel, my opponents would be able to get me out of office just for pure inability to think straight at times.

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But here he's being described as having no error and no fault. It's kind of an interesting way to talk about a sinful human being.

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So then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his

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God. Now, let me flip channels real quick here. So if we were at the television, being a man,

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I like to have the remote. Let me flip the channel. Watch this. Then those who had seized

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Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest.

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And going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

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But they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. Let me hit the button again.

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We're back to Daniel. Back to the Daniel channel. So these high officials in Satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him,

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O king Darius, may you live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps and the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you,

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O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Certain death indeed, right? Now, O king, establish the injunction.

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Sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.

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Therefore, king Darius, sign the document and the injunction. Notice here who's in the driver's seat. Is it the king demanding this?

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No. Okay. It's this plot. These people who can't stand this

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Daniel guy, right? This spotless, errorless, who has a good spirit and says,

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I've got to get rid of this guy. So how does Daniel respond?

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When Daniel knew the document had been signed, he went to his house, where he had windows in his upper chamber, opened toward Jerusalem.

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He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.

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Quick aside. Throughout Old Testament and Christian history and New Testament history, the time for believers to pray is not morning devotions or in the evening.

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It's three times a day. Remember when the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost? What were the disciples doing?

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They were praying. What time was it? Nine in the morning. What time is he praying?

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It doesn't say, does it? It just says he prays three times a day. He prays at nine in the morning, he prays at noon, and he prays at three in the afternoon.

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Those historically have been the three times we prayed. Now if you were to look at your Sunday bulletin in our

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In God's Word segment, we have three psalm readings every day. A psalm for the morning, a psalm for the afternoon, a psalm for the evening.

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That's the idea, is that we are to be in prayer not just once a day kind of thing.

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Prayer is a lifestyle. It's part of the rhythm of life. And these are good examples for us to follow.

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And Christians historically have done this. So just a little note about piety there.

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So when these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God, notice that he has to obey

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God, not Darius. They came near and said before the king concerning the injunction,

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O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes this petition to any god or man within 30 days except for you,

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O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, Well, the thing stands fast according to the law of the

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Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. So then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, he pays no attention to you,

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O king, or the injunction that you've signed, but makes his petition three times a day. The daggers are out.

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The trap is sprung. And the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver

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Daniel. Let me flip the channel again over to Luke 23, verses 1 through 5.

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The whole company of them arose and brought Jesus before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying,

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We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is

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Christ, a king. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him,

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You have said so. Then Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds, I find no guilt in this man.

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But they were urgent, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.

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Let me change the channel back to Daniel again. So Darius labored till the sun went down to rescue

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Daniel. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is a law of the

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Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Let me flip the channel back to Luke.

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Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people.

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And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.

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Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.

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I will therefore punish and release him. But they all cried out together, Away with this man!

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See how the two work together? Here's the story of Jesus' trial,

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His being found guilty, Him being killed, dying, and His resurrection, written large in type and shadow in the life, the very life of Daniel.

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Back to the Daniel channel. So King Darius commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions.

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The king declared to Daniel, May your God whom you serve continually deliver you. Matthew 27,

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And when they had mocked him, they stripped Jesus of the robe and put on His own clothes. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour, and about the ninth hour,

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Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, laba sabachthani? That is,

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said,

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This man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed to give it to him to drink.

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But the other said, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come and save him. And then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit.

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Back to Daniel. A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lord's that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

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Back to Matthew. The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the

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Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter said that while he was still alive, after three days

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I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people he's risen from the dead.

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And the last fraud will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers.

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Go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing it, by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

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Do you think it's an accident that the book of Daniel talks about how the den has a stone rolled in front of it and a seal put on it?

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I mean, you can't make this stuff up. So then the king, back to Daniel, King Darius went to his palace.

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He spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him. Then at break of day the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions.

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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

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God, has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king,

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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,

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O king. I have done no evil. Jesus, he was blameless.

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He was blameless. There was no fault found in him. Death had no right to him.

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This is all type and shadow. So the king, so Daniel was taken up out of the den.

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No kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God. The king commanded and those men who had maliciously accused

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Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions. They, their children, and their wives, and before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones to pieces.

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Kind of a hint at the fate of those who put Christ to death.

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So then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, the nations and languages that dwell in all of the earth.

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And it's important, again, I kind of pointed this out at the lectern. It's important you see this. There's two epistles written in the prophet

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Daniel, two epistles, two little letters. One is from Nebuchadnezzar himself actually addressed to each and every one of us.

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This little epistle in the prophet Daniel is also written to us. Because he says, he says this was,

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King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and languages that dwell on the earth. We all qualify.

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This was written to us. Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all of my royal domain people are to tremble in fear before the

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God of Daniel. For he is the living God, enduring forever.

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His kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues.

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He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of lions.

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And we can add a postscript. He who raised Jesus from the grave.

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Because that's what this story really is about. Daniel and the lions then is not about you following some moral example so that you can dare to be a

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Daniel. Because the one who dared to be a Daniel was Jesus. And he did it perfectly.

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And he did it for us. And so we think now of Isaiah 53.

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Surely he has borne our griefs and he has carried our sorrows. Yet he was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

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Upon him was the punishment that brought us peace. And so this Advent season as we're getting ready to bring

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Advent to a close, let's think on this for a second. And we'll think on this by way of a prayer written by Johann Gerhard on his meditations on divine mercy.

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And this is him pondering what it is that Jesus did for him.

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And it reads like a prayer. Here's what he said. O holy God, just judge.

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I see your Son hanging on the cross, streams of blood flowing freely.

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I look at Him and behold, I become weak with terror. Those cruel nails are my sins with which

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I have pierced His hands and His feet. Those horrible thorns are my sins with which

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I have crowned His holy head. The head worshipped and honored by angelic powers.

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Those sharply pointed lashes are my sins with which I have scourged

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His faultless body, the permanent temple of divinity. A terrible beast tore to pieces this heavenly

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Joseph and stained His robe with blood. And I, a wretched sinner,

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I am that terrible beast because my sins rushed in mass against this, your beloved

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Son. If this, your obedient Son, suffers in anguish because of the sins of another, what will be meted out to disobedient and wayward children because of their sins?

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Truly, the wounds of my soul must be great and deadly if they can only be healed because your only begotten

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Son is so wretchedly struck down. Truly, the disease of my soul must be great and deadly if it can only be cured because the heavenly

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Physician, life itself, dies on a cross. I see the torment of my

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Savior. I hear His wretched wailings on the cross. He is tormented because of me.

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He complains loudly that His Father has forsaken Him because of my sins. If the weight of another's sins strikes down the all -powerful

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Son of God, how unbearable will the wrath of God and His inestimable furor be against the unprofitable servant?

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O dry and unfruitful wood sold to the fires of eternal hell, what will be your lot if this is what happens to the green wood?

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Christ is the green tree of life. Christ is a vigorous tree rooted in divinity, part and parcel of humanity, famed for His virtues, possessing leaves of holy words and yielding the fruit of good works.

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He is the cedar of modesty and the vine of peace, the palm of patience and the olive of mercy.

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But if the fire of divine wrath burned against this green wood, the tree of life, because of the sins of others, how much more will it completely consume the sinner as a dry tree because of unfruitful works?

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How great and bloody the letters of my sin appear when written on the body of Christ. How striking.

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O most righteous God, is your wrath against my iniquity?

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How tightly I must have been held in captivity because so precious a ransom was given to release me.

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How great the stains of my sin must have been because streams of blood from the body of Christ flowed to wash them away.

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O most righteous God, yet most kind Father, behold how unjustly your

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Son suffered for me. Forget how unworthily I, your wretched servant, have acted.

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Look to Christ's deep wounds and plunge my sins into the deepest depths of the sea of your mercy.

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In the name of Jesus. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, And again that address is

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We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.