Sunday, November 28. 2021 PM

Thanksgiving, Church Announcements, and the Lord’s Supper

Sunny side. Hopefully everybody had a good Thanksgiving week with friends and family. It's good to be back. Obviously we've had some decoration changes here. We're entering the Christmas season. We're thankful for those that have helped put these up.

We get to enjoy these for the next month or so. A few announcements as we get started this morning. Come back for evening worship tonight. Choir rehearsal continues for those of you who are in Christmas choir.

They'll rehearse in here and then anybody not doing choir will be in the fellowship hall. Also looking ahead to Wednesday December 1st. The meal at 545 and after that tag for the kids and prayer time and Bible study for the adults.

Looking ahead to our Christmas program. That's going to be in the evening on December 19th at 530. So lots going on in the month of December. There will not be evening services on Wednesday December 22nd.

So just keep that in mind. Our fighter verse to memorize for this week comes from the Psalms. Psalm 141 verses 3 and 4. It says set a guard O Lord over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart incline to any evil.

To busy myself with wicked deeds and company with men who work iniquity and let me not eat of their delicacies. There's a few more directory packets if you haven't picked those up to update your church directory at home.

And then also because we are in the month of the Christmas season. If you have any Christmas cards that you want to give to fellow members please feel free to use that mailbox there at the back of the auditorium to kind of give those to people.

Obviously everybody's last name initial is marked on there. Still need your help as far as the church podcast that's upcoming. You feel free to go on the church website and you can submit any Q &A questions or ideas for upcoming podcasts that the guys can kind of put together and they'll be ready to roll come the first of the year there.

And then lastly a couple of ladies in the church office wanted me to mention there's a couple of aloe plants if you haven't picked those up as deacons when we had our deacon fellowship a couple weeks ago.

If you didn't get one of those feel free to stop by the church office and grab one of those plants. Otherwise it'll go to a family who wants them. Any other announcements before we get started this morning?

Okay as you can see we have the Lord's Supper this morning so begin to ask the Lord to give its attitude of prayer and reflection. We're gonna do that right now and then after we're done with that Michael will come.

Up and open us in prayer. Heavenly Father we come before you this morning with.

Hearts of Thanksgiving. We have been given opportunity to reflect about your goodness, your generosity, your providence, your faithfulness, your loving kindnesses, your compassions. There is not an area in our lives where Thanksgiving should not abound.

In all things you are and you have and you will prove yourself to be a good God. So we give you thanks. We thank you for gathering us here this morning and we ask that you would greatly bless this gathering.

We ask for the graces that we need, always need. You would give us desire for you. You would increase our love for you and our love for one another. We ask that you would take up these morsels of our worship, the bread and the fish of our hymns and our prayers and our scripture readings and our preaching and listening and taking communion together in all that we do.

That you would make it greatly abundant to your glory and to our good. We pray all of these things for the sake.

Of Jesus Christ. Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship? Our passage.

This morning is found in Psalms chapter 72. We'll be reading verses 8 through 11. Read with me together. May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.

May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Sema bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. Our first song this morning is in our Psalms.

For Worship hymnal, page 72b. We'll sing verses 5 and 6. Black Hymns Modern.

Ancient, page 88. And then in all things give him thanks is in your bulletin.

Isaiah, Assyria, and the Call to Fear the Lord

As much as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloh and rejoice in Rezan and the son of Ramilah. Now therefore behold the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of Euphrates.

Even the king of Assyria and all his glory. And I will rise up over its channels and it will rise up over its channels and go over all its banks. Then it will sweep on into Judah and it will overflow and pass through.

It will reach even to the neck and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land O Emmanuel. Be broken though peoples and be shattered and give ear all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves yet be shattered.

Gird yourselves yet be shattered. Devise a plan but it will be thwarted. State a proposal but it will not stand. For God is with us. For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people saying you are not to say it is a conspiracy in regard to all that this people call a conspiracy.

And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy and he shall be your fear and he shall be your dread. Then he shall become a sanctuary but to both the houses of Israel a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Many will stumble over them and they will fall and be broken. They will even be snared and caught. Bind up the testimony seal the law among my disciples and I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.

I will even look eagerly for him. Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel for the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. When they say to you consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter should not a people consult their God should they consult the dead on behalf of the living to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word it is because they have no dawn.

They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished and it will turn out that when they are hungry they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. Then they will look to the earth and behold distress and darkness the gloom of anguish and they will be driven away in darkness.

Let's pray. We're grateful for this season to remember all that you've given us but Lord I pray that we would always be that way. Thank you Lord for this church body that we're privileged to worship with with your people.

Just thank you for the for the fellowship that's here. Thank you for our pastor Lord and I pray that you would be with him as he comes to speak to us. I pray that he would be a conduit through which you instruct us.

Just give him.

Strength to do that. In your name Amen. Our next song is in our HMA hymnal again page 133. You are the Lord. Father again we come before you and we do.

Give you praise. We say praise the Lord. We say hallelujah to you for you are worthy to be praised. We thank you for this day where we can gather together on the first day of the week rejoicing in the resurrection of our Savior and our King Jesus Christ celebrating his resurrection from the dead.

Celebrating that he is indeed now King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And we give you the praise for you are worthy to be praised. Thank you for showing us so clearly in your word the glories of your Son by the power of your Holy Spirit that we may worship you as we were made to do.

I ask that you would help us today as we abide with you and commune with you that you would have your way in us that your will in heaven would be done upon the earth in our lives. We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7 and we'll be reading verses 1 through 14. Daniel chapter 7 and we'll read verses 1 through 14 this morning. This vision of Daniel here at the beginning of the second half of the book this vision puts beast fragility on display.

We see a succession of kingdoms one right after the other. We're also told that God is the one who is stirring them up and moving them along. He is in charge of world empires and as they rise and they fall ultimately we know what the cause is according to the will of the Lord.

In Daniel 7 we see the succession of kingdoms but we also see that God establishes his own king on Zion. And Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome but the struggling band opening for the main show. So if you'll stand with me let's read Daniel 7 beginning in verse 1 we'll read through verse 14.

This is the word of the Lord. In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts. Daniel spoke saying I saw in my vision by night behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea each different from the other.

The first was like a lion and it had eagles wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man's heart was given to it.

And suddenly another beast a second like a bear it was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and they said thus to it arise devour much flesh. After this I looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird.

The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast dreadful and terrible exceedingly strong it had huge iron teeth it was devouring breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.

It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns and there was another horn a little one coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots and there in this horn there were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking Papa's words.

I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame its wheels a burning fire.

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened. I watched them because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking.

I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beast they had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion we shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You may be seated. There was an ancient historian who 50 years before the birth.

Of Christ explored the tomb of Ramses II. At that time his name was known as Ozymandias. The name of Ramses II was known as Ozymandias and he had a lot of praise the the historian the ancient Greek historian had a lot of praise to give to the structure of this tomb that had been erected to honor and deify Ramses II and there was an inscription left there in honor of Ozymandias and this is what it said.

King of kings am I Ozymandias if anyone would know how great I am and where I lie let him surpass one of my works. Very haughty thing to leave as your epitaph. Now by the 1900s this wonder was a little bit more dilapidated and things had fallen off and there were cracks and things are a bit more dusty but it was still there.

Archaeologists found this inscription and they removed it from the tomb and sent it on a tour as part of the artifacts of Egypt. This caught the fancy of a poet by the name of Percy Shelley who in one of his lucid moments which there were not many wrote the following and perhaps you have heard this poem.

I met a traveler from an antique land who said two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert near them on the sand half sunk a shattered visage lies whose frowned and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command tell that it's sculptor well those passions read which yet survive stamped on these lifeless things.

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed and on the pedestal these words appear. My name is Ozymandias king of kings look on mine works ye mighty and despair. Nothing beside remains round that decay of that colossal wreck boundless and bare the lone and level sand stretch far away.

This of course was not true because the tomb of Ramses II was still pretty much intact and there was artifacts all over the place that there once had been a kingdom ruled by this great Pharaoh. Now of course it had long passed away and we understand the fragility of beasts and we've been talking about that and how kingdoms will fall and fail and move away and all that's left are the tourists.

But Percy's poem envisioned a despairing scene that was really a projection from his own heart. Shelley's poem is inadequate. There's no punchline you see to this absurdity as God fears we may bring the punchline into the story but it's not actually there.

Shelley was an atheist and he lived out a series of moral financial and relational train wrecks until he killed himself in his youth. He embraced meaninglessness as a virtue. Meaninglessness was a virtue to Shelley and so he told the first half of jokes rather well but he never could finish them.

Observations of beast fragility are true enough. Oh yes every world empire at some point collapses. Observations of beast fragility are true enough but these only hold meaning in the light of the ancient of days.

It is the fear of the Lord which provides us understanding. It is the fear of the Lord that actually provides the punchline that allows us to laugh at absurdity. Why should we be afraid of fragile beasts?

There is only one unstoppable king and we see a succession of kingdoms in verses 1 through 12 and it culminates with God holding court and passing sentence upon these beasts and doing away with them. We have the opening motions in verses 1 and 2 the winds from the four heavens coming the four winds from the heavens coming down upon the great sea and monstrous wave after monstrous wave arises.

We see the four beasts listed one after the other as a list of the accused and God holds court and he displays his majesty and his glory and his authority as the real mover and shaker of the earth and then he passes sentence and we see that these beasts do not succeed in their glory.

So court is in session in verses 9 and 10 and we begin with God's authority. Look at verses 9 and 10 again. I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool.

His throne was a fiery flame its wheels a burning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him a thousand thousands ministered to him ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened.

Envision the court of God all rise a thousand thousands ten thousand times ten thousand here comes the ancient of days and he is seated and then everyone else. The beasts we see had dominion they did have power and strength and control and influence.

He was given to them in turn and taken away from them in turn and so we see that their dominion and their authority was dependent upon the will of God dependent upon the authority of God and thus their authority and their dominion was utterly unlike the authority of God the ancient of days.

Not the current world leader. No he's the ancient of days. God is not a man that he should change. So we see in the first part of verse 9 and the end of verse 10 we see the nature of God's authority. The thrones are put in place you see that the thrones are put in place.

The King James Version says the thrones were cast down. The word in the Aramaic can be read either way but what a proper place for thrones to be cast down before the face of God humbled before the ancient of days the king of kings.

And Daniel is looking at a scene here in the throne room of God where there is worship and glory being manifested and he sees in classic coaxial clarity what John the Apostle saw in 4k definition. So in Revelation 4 verses 2 through 5 John gets to the same throne room that Daniel was in and we see all kinds of similarities.

God is still on the throne. God is still exercising his authority. God is still as glorious as he ever was whether in the days of Daniel or in the days of John. Revelation chapter 4 beginning in verse 2 reading through verse 5.

Immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne and he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald.

Around the throne there were 24 thrones. Remember the thrones that were set up in Daniel? And on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads and from the throne proceeded lightnings thunderings and voices.

Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God an expression of the plentitude of the Holy Spirit. So what's the point in Daniel 7? It's the same point in Revelation 4.

The thrones are arranged around the throne. The thrones are arrayed around the throne. Elders are subservient to the ancient of days. Right? There are thrones and then there is the throne. There are rulers and then there is the one who is on the throne.

All the radiance of those present are is just reflection of God's glory. All of their authority is derived from his. And their exalted stations whatever they are only serve to manifest how much more exalted is the Lord.

So in view of empires falling and rising, kings turning one over to the other, it is vital for God-fearing folk to remember that God arranges the thrones and he seats himself on the highest throne. And that is important for the days of Daniel, important for the days of John, important for our days.

God is on the throne and he is fully in charge. Now at the end of verse 10 we have a reinforcement of the themes that we see in verse 9. For a thousand thousands minister to him and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him.

And the court was seated and the books were open. So when we think about it, not one priest would be worthy to stand before such a king and yet God is attended to on his throne by a multitude of glorious creatures without number.

Look how exalted and glorious and lifted up is the Lord. Look how all of these people in all of their authorities and all the different thrones are all completely fixed upon God. This is an image of what it means to fear the Lord.

Where do we orient our lives? Do we rise and fall with the beasts? Are we shaken by the waves of the sea, whipped up by the four winds of heaven? Are we up and down on every wave or are we fixed upon the Lord who is seated upon the throne?

Look at the importance of God's court. We gauge the importance of courts and judges in their cases by how many tune in, how many pay attention to the developments and the outcome. But look at God's court.

Behold the attendance. Behold the witnesses. Behold the myriads upon myriads all awaiting the verdict and the sentencing. All that they may give the amen and say the hallelujah. Why fear fragile beasts?

There's only one unstoppable king. Chaos, the ups and downs, the back and forth of the world in which we live. What is greater than that chaos? Communion with the King of Kings. Communion with the King of Kings.

Being fixated on him and his glories, his exaltedness, his worthiness, his power, his sovereignty. Spending time with him puts everything else in perspective. Communion is greater than the chaos. We read in the text that the little horn was mouthing off.

The beastly empires made horrifying noises. But why be afraid of them? God is on his throne. His court is in session. The books are opened. His verdict, his praise, his truth are what we should have ears to hear.

So while the great sea rages and one wave of political monstrosity replaces the next, we may sit at meet with our Lord. We may commune with the King of Kings. What a blessing. So God's authority is on display.

God's authority is on display as well as God's glory, which of course are very closely related. This vision that spans from, spans longer than verses 2 through 12, but 2 through 12 hang together because at the heart of the vision we have the glory of God.

At the far boundaries on either side in verse 2 and verse 12, we see the the swirling storm of the nations. The next layer in we consider the rise and fall of the little horn. The next layer in we see the authority that God wields in the right at the very heart.

At the end of verse 9 and the beginning of verse 10, at the core of this picture, we have God's glory. Behold the ancient of days. What does he look like? What is the appearance? What are the things that Daniel is seeing?

His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame. Its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. So God's purity and power are on display here.

Now Daniel, you'll notice, can't actually see the face of God. He never sees the face of God, does he? He sees perfectly white hair. He feels the blast of fire. He notices a snow-white garment and he gazes stupefied at the range and the reach of God's holiness, his burning holiness.

God's purity, you see, has no blemish and God's power has no bounds. What is the writer to the Hebrews say? Our God is a consuming fire. Where would he get such a notion? Maybe from Daniel chapter 7. It seems that our God is a consuming fire.

His very throne is a raging inferno. He has no need to leave it for its burning wheels show his freedom of movement. There are none beyond his reach. With him all of us have to do. A burning river flows from the throne.

A burning river out from before him goes this way and that way and in Revelation 4, this same burning flame is called the Holy Spirit. What do we see here? A burning throne, a brilliant fire, flaming wheels, fiery stream, all of it in pure white, the glory of God, the glory of God.

He is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see. To him be honor and everlasting power.

Amen. So why fear fragile beasts when we see this vision of God's glory on the throne? What is, what puts all of the chaos of our world today into its proper perspective when we can sit at the same table in fellowship, in communion with God, all glorious.

His glory and his delight mediated to us by our unfailing Savior, Jesus Christ. Daniel sees all these beasts and you notice how he can see their faces and he marks them in their details. He sees them in all of their ugly chimeric forms.

He can count their heads and horns and trace all of their grotesque features. These beasts you see can be comprehended. They can be determined. You can get out a measuring tape and measure them and they can be defeated.

They are limited and they are mortal. But God, however, God on his throne cannot be seen for himself. Only the radiance of his glory may be squinted at by light stung eyes. Only the train of his robe, merely the hinder parts may be glimpsed.

And even then it sets the worshiper's face aglow. And in this we have the contrast between dust and glory. God has sent forth his son. God has sent forth his son. And his body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us that we would have fellowship with God in the mediated light of Christ.

Jesus assured Philip, Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. How do we have fellowship with such a glorious, exalted God whose throne is a fiery flame and its wheels a burning fire? How do we have fellowship with this God who has a fiery stream flowing from before him?

How do we have fellowship with such a holy, exalted and glorious God? Through his son, Jesus Christ. We are brought into fellowship with God almighty, the ancient of days. Now notice the sentence that is rendered by this court, to this court by the Lord in verses 11 and 12.

Daniel says, I watch then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

So there is a judgment that comes to pass on these beasts. The court has been seated because the ancient of days has now sat and the books have been opened and the outcome is this, that the loudmouth horn and the beast to which it is attached goes down in burning fire.

Oh, and what about the others? Oh, they also, although their influence lasts for a time, they too have their dominion taken away and they pass away as well. How do we know that God sat at court and rendered sentence against Rome and the horn and executed the verdict?

We know this because of verse 26, but look, look at what it says. How does the beast go down? How does the horn go down? Just in this passage, I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame, the burning flame.

Now you tell me, where is the burning flame in the text? Where is the burning flame to which this beast was given, to which the horn succumbed? Where is the burning flame? Oh, his throne is a burning flame.

Its wheels are a burning flame. The Holy Spirit being issued forth from the throne of God is a burning flame. This is the flame that comes upon this beast to which it succumbs. This is the burning flame which overcomes all the beasts.

It was the fire of God's own throne, the fire of its wheels as his kingdom advanced, the fiery stream with the Holy Spirit lancing out a light in the darkness. Notice this opening of books. The books were opened at the end of verse 10.

The books were opened and before that we have the fiery stream issuing forth. How is it, how is it that that this fourth kingdom, which is identifiable as Rome, how is it that this kingdom goes down in flames?

And how is it that the influence and dominion of Babylon and Medo-Persia and Greece pass away as each one had their dominion and their culture and influence lasts for a time, but eventually the sorcery and myths and culture and claims of paganism all fade?

How is it that this is brought about? It's by the fire of God. It's by the fire of God. We need to remember that this vision has, the information of this vision has already been given to us in another form in Daniel chapter 2, in which you have the same four kingdoms listed one after the other, and that when we get to the fourth kingdom, during the fourth kingdom something significant happens, just like here in chapter 7.

During the fourth kingdom something significant happens. In chapter 7 we see that the Son of Man shows up and he is given dominion and authority in a kingdom which will not pass away. In chapter 2 of Daniel something also happens.

A rock that is uncut by human hands is cast into the feet of the fourth kingdom and it crushes and demolishes and destroys these other four kingdoms and it's a kingdom which will not pass away and it spreads and it fills the entirety of the earth.

This is the good news of the kingdom. What at first appears to be the brutal conveyor belt of history, the jarring and smashing and tossing off of one fragile kingdom after another, is actually God passing sentence.

He evaluates, he makes judgment and executes his sentence. Remember Daniel is seeing this vision during the first year of Belshazzar and what was it that God wrote on the wall and said to Belshazzar, Mene, Mene, tekel upharsin.

I have numbered your dominion and finished it. I have weighed you in the balance and found you lacking. You're done. And one kingdom after another loses its dominion and eventually all of their influence passes away and how are they all undone and how are they all taken over?

Well the books are opened. The books are opened and the fire of God goes forth. The gospel is preached and the Holy Spirit is sent. This is how the kingdoms of the earth are undone. By Holy Spirit empowered gospel preaching.

This is the history of our world. Jesus told the Roman proconsul Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world. Meaning I'm not going to direct my followers to rage against their oppressors and burn down their cities and loot their temples and markets.

He did say in his prayer, his high priestly prayer in John 17, he asked the Father very specifically do not take my followers out of this world. Leave them in this world that they may be a witness to me of the love that you and I have for one another and of their unity with us.

And so he says you're not going to be of this world but you're going to be in it. You're not of this world but you're in it. And the same thing goes with the kingdom of God. It's not of this world folks but it is in this world.

And how do you know we're sitting in this world having communion with the King of Kings? He is enthroned. He is incended. He is at the right hand of God. So we see that this happens with the coming of Christ and the fate of Nero and Rome and the influence of all the other kingdoms.

Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world but it certainly was in the world. He did not send us to destroy anything. Sons of thunder style, hey let's burn down these Samaritan villages that don't believe in you Jesus.

He said no. But he didn't say no to all fire. He just said no to that kind of fire. There was another fire that he was going to send. Luke 12 49. I came, Jesus says, I came to send fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled.

What fire did Jesus Christ promise and what fire did he send upon the earth? The Holy Spirit. What happened at Pentecost? What happened when the Holy Spirit came down and filled up the church? What sign appeared above their heads?

Fire. That's right. That's right. And this fire goes forth and undoes the work of the enemy. So a fiery stream issued from the throne, a fiery flame, and as people, as Christ's people advanced by Holy Spirit power, declaring from the opened books, from all the books of scripture that had been opened and made clear and plain by the person and work of Christ, as they advanced by Holy Spirit power, preaching from the scriptures that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar, not those beasts, but Jesus is Lord, the wheels of the throne moved and advanced upon the Roman Empire so that within a generation the gospel of the kingdom had been trumpeted in the four corners of the known world.

And the pagan juggernaut of Rome was covered in fire not the kind of fire that comes from a kingdom of this world, but a fire that came from a kingdom that was in the world, but was of heaven. Not the fire desired by the sons of thunder, not the fire desired by the Jewish zealots, but a fire befitting the heavenly kingdom advancing upon the earth, as Daniel 2's image was Mount Zion filling the earth.

Remember this, when Jesus says you are the light of the world, the only kind of light that the disciples had ever seen was a light that came from some kind of flame. We could of course doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ can triumph over pagan nations.

We could consider the gospel of Jesus Christ to be weak and ineffectual, despite the resurrection and ascension of Christ, despite the advent of the Holy Spirit, but we should not. We should not doubt that Jesus is the worthy son.

Psalm 2 says all the nations have been given to him. We should not doubt that Jesus believed that his arrival marked the arrival of the stone in Daniel 2 and the promises of Daniel 7. What else can reasonably be expected or understood by Jesus' constant refrain of the good news of the kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven?

Why did he always refer to himself as the son of man? Why would he do that unless that he believed that he was the fulfillment of Daniel 7 and Daniel 2? He announced to everyone that the promised stone, the promised son of man had arrived.