The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Today is the last Sunday of the church year. We’re observing Christ the King Sunday. Christ’s kingdom, of course, supersedes all worldly kingdoms, whether said kingdom acknowledges it or not. Nations rise and nations fall. The Bible teaches that. Human history teaches that. And in Daniel chapters 2 and 7 it affirms the fact that these kingdoms, mighty as they may be, that all earthly kingdoms are bound to fail. They’re all bound for extinction, including our very own. Daniel 7 tells us about four worldly and very powerful kingdoms, through which the messianic kingdom, which is an eternal kingdom, breaks through into time and space. God’s Messiah, who is described as the one like the Son of Man, and to whom the scripture says all people owe worship.
The four kingdoms that are being described in the book of Daniel, especially in chapter 7, are the Babylonian kingdom, the Medo-Persian kingdom, the Greek kingdom, and the Roman Empire. Four powerful empires, and each succeeding kingdom was crueler and more formidable than the former one. Now the kingdoms of this world certainly have power. As a matter of fact, they have God-given power. God has in fact ordained civil governments to keep order and justice in the world, and to hold evil at bay. And where does the Bible teach that? Well, chiefly and most easily understood in Romans chapter 13: “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. For he, that is, the government, is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he, the civil government, does not bear the sword in vain.”
This morning’s Old Testament reading is Daniel chapter 7. And when I talk about Daniel and the book of Daniel, think the year 603 BC to 535 BC. That’s the life and the ministry, about 70 years, for the prophet Daniel. Daniel has drawn for us this morning a picture of four of the greatest powers that the world has ever known: the great beasts representing four earthly kingdoms, each kingdom rising in its own time, and each kingdom giving way to the one behind it in God’s good time.
The first beast, we’re told, looks like a lion with wings of an eagle, and it represents the Babylonian Empire. That’s ancient Babylon. Think of now modern-day Iraq. Babylon was likely founded in the third millennium BC and rose to prominence over the next thousand years. The city was the center of religious worship, and a great king presided over it. His name was Hammurabi. As a matter of fact, he created his own version of the Ten Commandments to govern and to adjudicate conflicts in his land. It became a great religious center in the southern part of Mesopotamia. But after Hammurabi’s death, the region saw Babylon fought over countless times. By the following century, one empire and dynasty after another had taken Babylon captive. Assyria was one of those empires. The resurgence of an independent Babylonian empire briefly flourished toward the end of the 7th century when King Nebuchadnezzar took the throne, but his dynasty failed too. Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia.
The second kingdom is the Medo-Persian kingdom, and it’s represented by a bear-like creature. The Medo-Persian Empire is primarily associated with Cyrus the Great. The empire was formed by the unification of Median and Persian kingdoms, with Cyrus conquering the kingdom of Media. Media was known, by the way, for its large territory and its efficient management under Darius the emperor, and for the freeing of the Jews, releasing them from captivity in Babylon and sending them back home. But the Persian Empire, as powerful as it was, also fell to Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.
As for the third beast, it’s a four-headed leopard with wings, and it’s described in verse 6, and it represents Greece. The Greek Empire was not a single unified empire, but rather a collection of independent city-states like Athens and Sparta, which flourished from around 800 BC until the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. His conquest spread Greek culture across the Mediterranean and beyond. This is called the classical Greek period, and it’s marked by contributions to philosophy and art, architecture, democracy, mathematics, literature, and the like, with the most notable leader being again Alexander the Great. Greece was later conquered by the Roman Empire, marking the end of the Greek Empire’s independent existence.
The fourth and last beast in Daniel 7 is the terrifying, dreadful beast, and it represents Rome. It’s the last of the four great kingdoms, the last kingdom, the worst of all the four beasts. The ten horns symbolize that the Roman Empire was an empire of extraordinary power, mighty, invincible. The Roman Empire began around 27 BC, emerging from the Roman Republic, which marked the rule of emperors like Augustus. It expanded into much of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia. It reached its peak with Pax Romana, that is, the peace of Rome, and that was a period of stability and prosperity, before eventually splitting into eastern and western empires, with the Western Empire collapsing in 476 AD due to internal strife and the continual invasion by the barbarians, while the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, lasted until 1453 and the fall of Constantinople. This is the Roman Empire during whose dominance God’s own kingdom arose from within it, that is, the church, Christianity, with its message not of might and power and military arms, but rather with its message of Christ: forgiveness, faith, repentance, and the heavenly kingdom to come.
Now Daniel served in three courts, in Babylon and in the Persian Empire. He served King Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. His counsel demonstrated not only that civil governments can be neutral in regard to religion, that they need not be aligned with evil forces either, but also, without an acknowledgment of the source of all authority for government, it seems inevitable that when a government forgets about the Lord God, they become obsessed, self-serving, and exploit and oppress their people. As for us in our day, we still live in a world filled with competing kingdoms. We may not have to deal with other governments in the old-fashioned way that they used to, but we do have kingdoms. We have media kingdoms and technology kingdoms and entertainment kingdoms. We have political and economic kingdoms, and sometimes these kingdoms become quite self-serving to our disadvantage. And the kingdoms we come in contact with aren’t always the kind that are obvious to us. They can be forces cultural, political, economic, social, yet they’re very powerful in their own way, and they’ve been robbing the church for a few generations now.
So when Daniel was given to see the empires of his age, Daniel saw a glorious kingdom, a messianic kingdom, rising up out of the empires of this world, namely Jesus Christ the Messiah and his holy church. As Daniel wrote: “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.” It’s a grand picture of the beginning of a great and glorious kingdom, even on earth: the church. This kingdom ushered in the new age of the King of kings, referred to here as the Ancient of Days. The scene portrayed for us is heaven. One throne is occupied, and it’s written in a poetic Hebrew style which conveys beauty and order in this kingdom, not brute force or chaos or mortality, which is in contrast to the great turbulent sea and the four beasts of Daniel. The Ancient of Days is God the Father. The Ancient of Days is the king of both heaven and earth. He alone grants dominion and honor, as well as to the one like the Son of Man. The Father’s clothing is white as snow, which stands for purity, sinlessness, holiness. And the Ancient of Days took his seat, and his clothes were as white as snow. Fire stands for judgment in the very presence of the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, that is, God the Father. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. There can be no doubt who the one like the Son of Man is. That is the Messiah, Christ in Greek. Jesus himself would use the term “the Son of Man” for his own self-designation more times than any other title in the Gospels, even as he stands before Pilate he refers to himself as the Son of Man, connecting himself to the prophet Daniel. The Ancient of Days, God the Father, gives God the Son, the Son of Man, the kingdom of heaven, and all the nations of the earth will worship him one day. That’s verse 13. All dominion has been given to my Son. Both worldly kingdoms and the kingdom of God are derived by God’s gift and authority. But these two kinds of kingdoms, the heavenly one and the earthly ones, are vastly different. Earthly ones, for example, cover a specific territory. They have borders, at least they used to, when people knew how to defend the country. Verse 14: “And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” The messianic kingdom has no territory. It has all territory, put it that way. It is found in every spot on the globe, the kingdom of Christ, the holy church, even in countries that have outlawed it. It still finds a way to bring forth life. Human authority has an expiration date, like a shelf life. The days are numbered. It rises and it falls. But God’s kingdom is eternal. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. They cannot extinguish the kingdom of Christ on earth, the church. They can bruise it, injure it, but they cannot destroy it.
Did you notice that the four kingdoms depicted for us in Daniel’s vision have something in common? While they were all great empires and lasted centuries, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, they’ve all ceased to exist as empires. Now there’s nothing left but an echo of such grand and great empires. The clash of these kingdoms, the worldly kingdoms versus the messianic kingdom, that clash will one day occur, but it’s no contest. The conflict has already been decided on the cross and sealed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And you, by virtue of baptism and faith, are members, citizens, a holy priesthood in this holy kingdom. The prince of this world, Satan, brought his most powerful weapon to bear, to kill the king of everlasting life, and he failed. Satan was powerless to hold the one like the Son of Man in death’s chains. Now the reign of Christ the King will be evident to all at his second coming. All peoples, all nations, and all languages will serve him, whether they like it or not. For he will in fact come. He will judge between the quick and the dead, the living in faith and those who had no faith at all. His dominion shall not pass away. It’ll be everlasting. His kingdom shall not be destroyed. Verse 14: “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.” So do you. So will you. All who trust in Christ and have the forgiveness of sins will live eternally with the King of kings and the Lord of lords. They will stand in his presence in worship and bow down before the Ancient of Days, God the Father. For our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20. We will continue to struggle in this world. We will fall into sin time and time again. But the loving God who governs our lives by his word and the gift of faith and love, he will send his Son to the world again at the second coming, the end of days, and he will come in glory to bring you home and to banish all that is corrupted by sin from his presence and from yours. Jesus said in John 16:33: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” And he prayed in his high priestly prayer: “I do not ask you, heavenly Father, to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in thy truth. Thy word is truth.” All kingdoms, grand and great as they appear, come and go. All but one. The Word endures forever. And as long as the word of God endures forever, the church of God endures forever. And so from this moment on, you do too.
Not all countries forgot. They still have liturgies, thankfully. And just before Charles III was crowned and the crown was placed on his head, the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed: “O God, the crown of the faithful: bless, we beseech thee, this crown, and so sanctify thy servant Charles, upon whose head this day thou dost place it as a sign of royal majesty, that he may be crowned with thy gracious favor and filled with abundant grace and all princely virtues, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, supreme over all things, one God, world without end.” Just change Charles’s name to yours, and the literal crown with a figurative one, and it’s a prayer for you. You aren’t the king of England, but one day you will live and reign with the King of kings, for your sins have been forgiven. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.