The Courage To Speak | Courage In The Fire | Pastor Joe Coffey

As we continue our Courage in the Fire series, Pastor Joe walks us through Daniel 5, where King Belshazzar throws a wild party using sacred temple vessels, showing complete disregard for God. A mysterious hand appears and writes a message no one can interpret—until Daniel steps in to deliver God’s judgment. Pastor Joe reminds us that just as the king called upon Daniel to interpret the writing on the wall, Christians ought to be ready to answer for their faith when called upon by those who are not believers.

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This is a reading from Daniel chapter
five.

King Belshazzar made a great feast

for a thousand of his lords
and drank wine in front of the thousand.

Belshazzar,
when he tasted the wine, commanded

that the vessels of gold
and of silver, that Nebuchadnezzar

his father, had taken out of the temple
in Jerusalem, to be brought,

that the king and his lords, his wives,
and his concubine to my drink from them.

Then they brought in the golden vessels
that had been taken

out of the temple,
the house of God in Jerusalem,

and the king and his lords, his wives
and his concubines drank from them.

They drank wine and praise the God of gold

and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Immediately
the fingers of a human hand appeared

and rode on the plaster
of the wall of the king's palace

opposite the lampstand,
and the king saw the hand as it rode.

Then the king's color changed,
and his thoughts alarmed him.

His limbs gave way, and his knees
knocked together.

The king called loudly
to bring in the enchanters.

The Chaldeans, and the astrologers.

The king
declared to the wise men of Babylon,

whoever reads this writing and shows me
its interpretation,

shall be clothed with purple,
and have a chain of gold

around his neck, and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom.

Then all the king's wise men came in,
but they could not read the writing,

or make known to the king
the interpretation.

Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed,

and his color changed,
and his lords were perplexed.

The queen,
because of the words of the king

and his lord, came into the banqueting
hall, and the queen declared.

O King, live forever.

Let not your thoughts
alarm you or your color change.

There is a man in your kingdom
in whom the spirit of the Holy God,

in the days of your father, light
and understanding

and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods,
were found in him.

And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father,
your father, the king made him chief

of the magicians, enchanters,
Chaldeans, and astrologers,

because an excellent spirit, knowledge
and understanding

to interpret dreams, explain
riddles, and solve problems

were found in this Daniel,
whom the king named Belshazzar.

Now let Daniel be called,

and he will show the interpretation
that Daniel's brought in before the king.

The king answered and said to Daniel,
you are that Daniel,

one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king
my father brought from Judah.

I have heard of you,
that the spirit of the gods is in you,

and that light and understanding
and excellent wisdom are found in you.

Now the wise men, the enchanters,
have been brought in before me

to read this writing
and make known to me its interpretation.

But they could not show
the interpretation of the matter.

But I have heard that you can give
interpretations and solve problems.

Now, if you can read the writing
and make known to me its interpretation,

you shall be clothed with purple
and have a chain of gold

around your neck, and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom.

Then Daniel answered and said
before the king,

let your gift be for yourself,
and give your rewards to another.

Nevertheless,
I will read the writing to the king

and make known to him the interpretation.

O King,
the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar

your father kingship and greatness
and glory and majesty,

and because of the greatness
that he gave him, all peoples,

nations, and languages
trembled and feared before him

whom he would
he killed and whom he would he kept alive.

And he would he raised up,
and whom he would he humbled.

But when his heart was lifted up

and his spirit was hardened,
so that he dealt proudly,

he was brought down from his kingly
throne, and his glory was taken from him.

He was driven
from among the children of mankind,

and his mind
was made like that of a beast.

And his dwelling
was with the wild donkeys.

He was fed grass like an ox,
and his body was wet

with the dew of heaven, until he knew that
the Most High God rules.

The kingdom of mankind sets over it.

He, he will in you, his son Belshazzar,
have not humbled your heart,

though you knew all this,

but you have lifted up yourself
against the Lord of heaven,

and the vessels of his house
have been brought in before you,

and you and your lords, your wives and
your concubines have drunk wine from them.

And you have praised the gods of silver
and gold, of bronze,

iron, wood, and stone,
which do not see or hear, or known,

but the God in whose hand is your breath,
and who are all your ways.

You have not honored.

Then from his presence the hand was sent,
and this writing was inscribed.

And this is the writing that was
inscribed, many, many tackle and parson.

This is the interpretation of the matter.

Many God is numbered the days of your
kingdom and brought it to an end tackle.

You have been weighed in the balances
and found wanting.

Paris.

Your kingdom is divided
and given to the meat and Persians.

Then Belshazzar gave the command,
and Daniel was clothed with purple.

A chain of gold was put around his neck,
and a proclamation

was made about him that he should be
the third ruler in the kingdom.

That very night Belshazzar,
the Chaldean king, was killed, and Darius

the Mede received the kingdom,
being about 62 years old.

Everybody,

good morning and welcome to Christ
Community Chapel.

I'm really, really glad that you're here.

Thanks for coming.

Happy Mother's Day.

To those of you who are moms,
this is a day where we recognize

the quiet heroes that are in our lives.

There is no love
quite like a mother's love.

So if you're a mother, grandmother,
a step mom, a single mom, an adoptive mom,

or you're just a woman
who, is a mom to somebody who needs a mom.

Thank you. We honor you today.

We also know that today can be a hard day
for any number of reasons.

So if this is a hard day for you,
I want you to know that we see you.

We love you.

We're really glad that you're here.

You're in the right place

because our church,
we want our church to be like a family.

And you belong here. All right.

So happy Mother's Day.

All right.

This is the third week of our
four part series on Daniel.

We we're calling it courage in the fire.

We're looking at stories about Daniel
and his three

friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They were exiles in a foreign country
called Babylon.

And when you're in exile,
in a foreign country, at first

you are very, very different
than the prevailing culture.

But culture is like a river
that flows in one direction.

And it's the easiest thing to do
is to just let

that river take you
and just float down the river.

It takes tremendous resolve,

tremendous courage
to stand against the current.

One of the reasons we chose
this series is because

of its similarities to our culture,

that if our culture is like a river
that flows one direction,

is flowing away from God,
it takes great resolve, great courage,

to live for Jesus right here, right now.

You know, there are a lot of reasons
why I love the Bible.

One of the reasons is so brutally honest
about the people I in the Bible is

it shows them, warts
and all, all their flaws.

Which makes sense because the main theme
of the Bible is that we need a Savior,

and it's comforting,
to know that the people in the Bible

needed a Savior
as much as I do as much as you do.

The downside is that there aren't
a lot of people to look up to or examples

for other than Jesus,
who's like, way up here.

But Daniel's
one of the few people in the Bible

with no gaping flaws.

He he wasn't a clergyman.

He wasn't a minister.

He was a a businessman
and an administrator

who was so good at what he did,

so full of integrity that he served

four different administrations,
four different kings.

And, chapter one, it's King Nebuchadnezzar
here in chapter five.

It's a king called Belshazzar.

We had the whole of chapter
five read to us.

It's it's where the iconic phrase
handwriting on the wall originated.

I have three points
that I want to pull out of chapter five.

I want to talk about the party.

I want to talk about the writing,
and I want to talk about the moment

the party is what Belshazzar does.

The writing is what God does,
and the moment is what Daniel does.

All right, first the party.

Chapter five starts out like this.

King Belshazzar
made a great feast for a thousand of his

lords
and drank wine in front of the thousand.

Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine,
commanded the vessels of gold

and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar

his father, had taken out of the temple
in Jerusalem, to be brought at the king

and his lords, his wives
and his concubines might drink from them.

Then they brought in the golden vessels

that had been taken out of the temple,
the house of God in Jerusalem,

and the king and his lords, his wives
and his concubines drank from them.

They drank wine

and praise the gods of gold
and silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.

It's pretty wild party.

So, you know,

it starts out with a feast for a thousand.

Like, I don't know when the last time
you had a party

for a thousand of your closest friends.

That's what Belshazzar is doing.

Then he breaks out
the wine with the wine, is flowing freely,

breaks out the women
as his wives and concubines

come, which is very unusual
for that day and age.

And then it's like Belshazzar
says, what the heck?

Let's throw in a little blasphemy.

Go get all the holy stuff
that you can find and we'll use it

instead of our party cups
for this shindig.

All right, it is a wild party.

One of the things that you should know
is that historians tell us that,

a week to ten days before that,

a king named King Cyrus of Persia

had come down with his army
and met the Babylonian army

and decimated the Babylonian army
about 50 miles away from the capital.

So Babylon was essentially defenseless
at this point.

So Belshazzar knows that death is coming,

is coming like a tidal wave.

And that's the context of this party.

A couple things.

One is that the reward
and judgment of God,

sometimes is slow in coming,

but it comes

what I mean by that
is that sometimes it seems like God's

not paying attention
to obedience or disobedience.

I mean, you can do all the right things
and be obey

obeying God, and nothing seems like
it's working out in your life.

You know, Daniel, here

is somebody who has lived a life
by all indication

of consistent, faithful obedience.

Well, one author called a long obedience
in the same direction.

And here in

chapter five, he's been discarded.

He's been just cast away.

He's been marginalized
even though he has been obedient.

Belshazzar is a king
who's living more like a frat boy,

and he has wealth and power and prestige.

But judgment is coming.

It's slow,

but it comes.

And that means if if you are obeying God,
you're doing all the right things.

And things don't seem like
you're not being rewarded for it.

Be patient. God sees.

It also means
if you're doing the wrong thing

and you know it and you think you're
getting away with it, you're not.

God sees.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is there's a
this party is almost frenetic.

I mean, it is
it is a panicky kind of party.

And in that way, it's a microcosm ism
of our world and our culture right now.

My dad was an English major, in college,
and he loved Shakespeare.

And he would tell me about the plays
when I was growing up.

And he
he would quote Shakespeare sometimes.

And one of the quotes I still remember
is a passage from Macbeth,

and it

says that life's but a walking shadow,

a poor player who stress and frets

his hour upon the stage and has heard
no more.

It's the tale told by an idiot,

full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.

One of the reasons that Shakespeare
was such a genius was his ability

to kind of lay open the human heart
and show us what is inside of us.

And that passage kind of shows

us the deep fear every human being

has of being insignificant of our lives,

just not mattering at all.

Here in the book of Daniel,
with Belshazzar

knowing that death is coming,
it's like he's casting around just to try,

try to find something that shows himself

that he has significance.

He starts with this big feast

to show his power and his wealth
and the women and pleasure,

and then finally raising
his fist in defiance of God.

I told you, there are a

lot of reasons why I love the Bible.

One of the other reasons
is that the Bible, like Shakespeare,

is able to open the human heart
and show us what we feel.

But more than Shakespeare,
what the Bible does, it shows us why

we feel, what we feel
and what to do about it.

When God creates human beings,
when he creates Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve

are in perfect relationship with him

and they know exactly who they are.

They have identity,
they have purpose, they have significance.

And then when sin enters the world,

that breaks the relationship with God

and every human being, everyone you know

is on this desperate search for identity

and significance.

And all you have to do is look around
and see.

It's it's almost it's a frenetic search.

People are panic. Yeah. I googled,

the question how many genders are there?

And a site called Team Talk, gave me this.

There are many different genders,
including male, female, transgender,

gender neutral, non-binary, gender pin,
gender, gender queer, two spirit,

third gender, and all or none
or a combination of these.

Those are ten different variables.

And it ends by saying it could be
a combination of any of the 1010

different variables in a combination,
or it's that over a thousand

different possibilities. What?

Why would any culture in the world
say that there are a thousand different?

You know why?

It's this desperate, frantic search

for significance,
for meaning, for identity?

The fourth century theologian Augustine
had it right when he said,

Oh God, you have made us for yourself.

And our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in thee.

That's the first point.

The second point is the writing.

So Belshazzar
throws this huge party and then,

ask for all the holy vessels
to be brought out.

He blasphemes and then a hand comes
and writes on the wall.

This is what it says.

Immediately the fingers of a human hand
appeared and wrote on the plaster

of the wall of the king's palace
opposite the lampstand.

And the king saw the hand as it wrote.

The king's color changed,
and his thoughts alarmed, and his limbs

gave way in his knees knocked together.

That's where we get that iconic phrase,
the handwriting on the wall.

My first question is.

Why would God do that?

Oh, why would he write

on the wall at all?

I mean, judgment was coming.

Belshazzar obviously deserved judgment.

Not only had he ignored God,
he had blasphemed to God.

If I if I was God, I would have just let
the judgment come without warning.

The Persian army, fierce and merciless.

But instead God writes on the wall.

And Belshazzar,

who didn't want anything
to do with God, a moment before

now, is desperate to find out

what God is saying to him.

Do you see how gracious that is?

I used to think that God wrote
on the wall, really?

To just let Belshazzar know the jig was up
and it was time to pay the piper.

But that's not it at all.

C.S. Lewis has a really famous quote
about pain.

He says, God
whispers to us in our pleasures.

God speaks to us in our conscience,

but God shouts to us in our pain.

Pain is God's megaphone

to rouse a deaf world.

What God was doing to

Belshazzar was getting his attention.

He was giving him

one last

chance, which is incredibly gracious.

I met with a man a couple of weeks ago

who has just been diagnosed with stage
four cancer.

He's going to fight it with all he has,

which is exactly the right thing to do.

But in the middle of our conversation,
he said,

you know, I I've never been closer to God
than I am right now.

I've never been closer to my family.

I've never treated every day as a gift.

A diagnosis like that

can be like handwriting on the wall
can make your knees buckle.

It can also be an invitation

from God

to draw close to him.

And this is what is true.

If you live long enough,
you will experience

something that
will make your knees buckle.

Handwriting on the wall

is coming for all of us.

That's one thing.

The second thing that strikes me
about the handwriting on the wall

is that God writes in a code
that's so weird.

Like he writes
four words, many, many tickled Berson.

And it's not like I have to believe
that God knew the Babylonian language.

My guess is God is pretty fluent.

You know, in all languages.

Why does he write in code?

Like Belshazzar is desperate to know

what God has said,

and he writes in a code.

That brings me to my third point,
which is the moment.

So Belshazzar throws this wild

party of God right on the wall.

Belshazzar is desperate
to know what God is saying,

so he offers this huge reward,
but no one can tell him.

And then the Queen speaks up.

And this is what the Queen says.

The Queen,
because of the words of the king

and his lords,
came into the banqueting hall,

and the queen declared,
oh King, live forever.

Let not your thoughts
alarm you or your color change.

There's a man in your kingdom
in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.

In the days of your father.

Light and understanding and wisdom, like
the wisdom of the gods were found in him.

And King Nebuchadnezzar,
your father, your father, the king

made him chief of the magicians,
enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers,

because an excellent spirit, knowledge
and understanding to interpret dreams,

explain riddles, and solve problems
were found in this Daniel,

whom the king named Belteshazzar

now let Daniel be called,

and he will show the interpretation.

One of the reasons we chose
this series is we were.

We wanted all of us to look at the courage

that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego had so

we could be inspired
to have the same courage.

What happens here is that

Belshazzar experiences
something that makes his knees buckle.

He needs to know what God has said.

He doesn't know who to turn to,
and the Queen remembers Daniel.

And what she remembers about Daniel
is his reputation

that he had an excellent spirit.

This is what is true.

You may be the only Christian
in your family.

You may be the only Christian at work,

the only Christian at your gym.

And everyone in your life at some

point is going to experience
something that will make their knees

buckle.

And when that happens

and they need someone to talk to them,

live your life in such a way

that you're the one they think of

that when they think, man, I don't know

what to do at this moment in my life.

I don't know what's going to happen.

I need to talk to someone who can tell me

that to be.

I remember years ago I joined a bike club,

in part because I wanted to ride,
but, in part because I wanted to be around

people who were not Christians,
not church people.

Not not that I was so tired of you guys,

but it was going to give me an opportunity

maybe to talk to them about Jesus. But,

that was a pretty serious bike club
and we were out of breath

most of the time,
so there was no time to talk.

So I wondered if I was
ever going to get a chance.

And then one of our riders

got hit by a car,
and I was the first call they made.

And I remember getting the call,

and then Saint John's been hit by a car.

Can you come to the emergency room?

We need you now.

And that was my moment.

There's going to come a moment

in the lives of the people around you

who they need to talk to
somebody live your life in such a way

that when that happens, they think of you.

Then the second thing that happens is

Daniel's offered a reward
and he turns down the reward.

And it's not just that he's

being snarky about the reward,

it's because he doesn't.

He wants to make sure that Belshazzar
knows he doesn't have mixed motives,

that what he's going to tell him
this message from God isn't

for some other reason.

You know, sometimes I think I hear about,
you know, Christians getting

into conversations with non-Christians,
and it becomes an argument.

And it's it's almost like the Christian
wants to be right

more than we want
to bring someone to Jesus.

And that's a mixed motive

here.

Daniel doesn't

make an appointment with Belshazzar
so he can tell him why he's wrong.

He just waits for Belshazzar
to have that moment when his knees buckle

and he calls for Daniel.

And then Daniel talks.

And what Daniel says, he launches
into the story about Nebuchadnezzar.

He says, O King,
the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar

your father kingship and greatness
and glory and majesty,

and because of the greatness
that he gave him, all peoples,

nations, and languages trembled and feared
before him whom he would.

He killed, whom he would

he kept alive, whom he would,
he raise up, whom he would he humble.

But when his heart was lifted up
and his spirit was hardened,

so he dealt proudly.

He was brought down from his kingly
throne, and his glory was taken from him.

He was driven
from among the children of mankind,

and his mind was made
like that of a beast, and swelling

was with the wild donkeys.

He was fed grass like an ox.

His body was wet, and the dew of heaven,
until he knew that the Most High God rules

the kingdom of mankind,
and sets over at whom he will.

And you, his son Belshazzar
had not humbled your heart, though

you knew all this, but you've lifted up
yourself against the Lord of heaven,

and the vessels of his house
have been brought in before you,

and you and your Lord.

Your wives and concubines
have drunk wine from them,

and you praise the gods of silver
and gold, of bronze, iron,

wood, and stone,
which you do not see or hear, or know,

but the God in whose hand is your breath,
and whose are all your ways.

You have not honor.

What's he doing?

What he's doing with Belshazzar
is he's giving them hope.

What he's saying is, you know
your father, Nebuchadnezzar, he was great.

Probably greater than you.

He made the same mistake.

He was weighed on the scale

by God and found wanting.

But he repented,

and God was gracious.

You know what he's doing?

He's giving him the gospel.

You see that,

right?

When when somebody comes to you
and they're something's happened

in their knees, a buckle, they're saying,
I don't know what to do,

what how do I face this?

You can tell them, listen,

let me start with this.

And what you need to know is

Daniel had no idea
how Belshazzar was going to respond.

He left that up to God,
but he gave him the gospel.

You can say
to the people in your family, at work,

at the gym,

listen,

you've been weighed on the scale
and found wanting.

This is what the Bible says we all have.

But Jesus has come

so that you could be saved.

Don't you see?

This is God being gracious,
God getting your attention

because he wants relationship with you.

You may be the only.

You're the only Christian in some circle,

and in that circle it's going to happen.

There's going to be
handwriting on the wall when it happens.

Live your life
in such a way that it's you.

They think of,

and then tell them the gospel.

Have the courage to speak

and then leave the results to God.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we come to you and I am.

I'm grateful for it.

I love the book of Daniel.

I love what he does here.

But more than that, I love what you do.

That Belshazzar, as far away from you
as he could possibly be.

You still give him an opportunity

like you gave me,
like you've given all of us.

Like you're giving somebody
right here, right now.

Lord, I pray that we will turn to you.

And after that,
I pray that we will live our lives

in such a way
that when the people around us

have something

that makes their knees buckle,
that they'll think of us

and we'll be able to share your love
with them.

The news of Jesus.

Thanks for your grace.

Thanks for giving us
such a wonderful Savior.

We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.