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Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Daniel chapter six as we are continuing our study in the book of Daniel. It's likely that even if you've never read the book of Daniel or didn't grow up in church hearing those stories, you're probably still very familiar with a number of the expressions that have come from this book. We have these modern idioms that we use today. Idioms like having feet made of clay, being thrown into the furnace or thrown to the fire, the writings on the wall. We looked at that one last week, or your days are numbered, or how your life is weighed into balance, all of those expressions actually come from the book of Daniel and and have survived for over twenty five hundred years.
Joel Brooks:There's something about the stories in Daniel that just kind of stick with you and have had a huge cultural impact over this time, whether you knew it or not. And this morning, we're actually going to look at the last of the six stories and also the most famous of all the stories, Daniel and the Lions Den. And so, we'll be looking at chapter six. I won't read all of six, but we'll read the first 23 verses. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over the...
Joel Brooks:And over them three high officials of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. 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, they sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaints or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Then, men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then, these high officials and satraps, they came by agreement to the king and said to him, O king Darius, live forever.
Joel Brooks:All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, 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 thirty days, except to you, 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 Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, king Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber opened towards Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his god as he had done previously.
Joel Brooks:Then, these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his god. Then, they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, oh king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days, except to you, oh king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who's one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, oh king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day. Then the king, when he heard these words, he was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel, And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.
Joel Brooks:Then, these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, know, oh king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, may your 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 ring or signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting.
Joel Brooks:No diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. Then at break of day, the king rose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you continually... Whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?
Joel Brooks:Then Daniel said to the king, oh king, live forever. My god sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him, and also before you, o king. I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, thank you for your word. We've looked at many things this week, but nothing like your word because your word through your spirit has the ability to completely transform us. And I pray that would happen in this moment.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Last week, we got to see how Daniel was brought up out of retirement in order to go to King Belshazzar and read that mysterious handwriting that was on the wall.
Joel Brooks:We didn't have time to discuss this part of the story, but when Daniel was brought before the king, before he ever interpreted anything on the wall, he just blasted King Belshazzar. I mean, he did not hold any punches. It was a sign a side of Daniel that we actually haven't seen up to this point. Perhaps, he just didn't like being pulled out of retirement or pulled away from the golf course or whatever it was, but he was angry. And, he told the king, he said, did you learn nothing, absolutely nothing from what God did to your grandfather?
Joel Brooks:Nebuchadnezzar. In which, he was so filled with pride, God had to humble him and had him walking on all fours, and you learned nothing. And then, goes really to the heart of the matter and says, and on top of all that, you you've been so arrogant, you actually took the vessels, those holy vessels that were in the temple of Yahweh, and you took them, and you made toast to pagan gods with them. And, when Daniel, he he said that to him, he actually gave us a great picture of sin, a good definition of sin, if you will. Sin is taking something that was created for God's purposes and using them for our own purposes.
Joel Brooks:Taking something that was created for God's purposes and using them for our own purposes, and this deeply angered Daniel. Now, Belshazzar, he did this with the gold and the silver vessels from the temple. We do this with all sorts of things. We can sin against the the Lord this way by just using all the gifts and the talents that He has given us to be used for His glory, and instead, we use those gifts and talents for our own glory. Or we could do this with money, the money that God has given us to steward for His purposes.
Joel Brooks:We can use that money for our own purposes. Or we could take the body that God has given us to be used for His glory, and instead, we can take that same body and we could use it to pursue our own selfish desires. We we do this sin that Belshazzar is accused of doing all of the time. But, I think one of the reasons it bothered Daniel so much is because that's what Babylon had done to him or tried to do to him. Just like the king had taken the gold and silver vessels from the temple to be used for his own purposes, Babylon had stripped Daniel away from Judah and taken him to Babylon to serve there.
Joel Brooks:Daniel, he was just a teenager living in Jerusalem, trying to serve the Lord, and Babylon came in, ripped him away from his home, forced him to study all sorts of pagan and profane things, and then put him in service of the king. And yet, somehow, throughout all of that, Daniel remained pure. Throughout all of it, he actually remained a holy vessel, one that retained its original use to be used for God's glory. Daniel thought, okay, I'm I'm no longer in Jerusalem, but I will still set myself apart to be an instrument that the Lord uses for His purposes. So, yes, He's going to serve Babylon, but He's not going to become like Babylon.
Joel Brooks:He's going to serve Babylon by being the holy vessel God had intended him to be, set apart for his use. So he serves Babylon by serving the Lord. And we have seen this for five chapters now. For almost seventy years, Daniel has been doing this, faithfully serving God while also faithfully serving the city of Babylon. He has seen kings come and go, kingdoms come and go.
Joel Brooks:Four of the most powerful men in the world have come and gone, and yet, he's still here serving. This time, he is serving King Darius. He is a unbelievable picture of what it means to be salt in this world. He has worked his life into the systems and the structures and the people that would completely rot without him, and he has preserved the city. He has been a gospel light, and he is one of the best examples that we have of doing this.
Joel Brooks:And, there are three things I want us to look at, three things that enabled Daniel to do this so well and to have such an impact on the city. And, we see all three of those things in this text. First, we see that Daniel, he made no distinction between the secular and the sacred. Second, we see that Daniel let God be his judge. And third, Daniel had formed the habit of prayer.
Joel Brooks:I want to walk through each of these things. First is this, Daniel, he made no distinction between the secular and the sacred. Daniel was not a minister. He didn't even work at a non profit. He was an adviser to the king.
Joel Brooks:Once he was a wise man, you know, and now he's a government official. He has a very secular profession. Yet, is there anyone here who would say he wasn't working for God while doing this secular profession? The church would do a great disservice to people, I would do a great disservice to you if you ever left here and thought, the only way for you to be serving God was for you to go overseas and to be a missionary, or for you to go to seminary and to become a pastor, because that is not... Those are not the only avenues for you to serve God.
Joel Brooks:Actually, all of us are called to be priests. All of us are called to be ministers. The Great Commission is for all of us, regardless of whatever job we have. We are to be salt and light in this world. All of us are ministers.
Joel Brooks:And Daniel, he he completely got that. He did his job with such excellence, God got the glory. In verse three, we read excellent spirit was found in him, but you could actually translate that, a spirit of excellence was found in Daniel. You know, Christians, they... Like, we we shouldn't have to decide if we want a good plumber or a Christian plumber.
Joel Brooks:Christians should do their plumbing really well, their professions with excellence. We shouldn't have to decide if we want a good lawyer or a Christian lawyer. Now, we might have to decide if we want good music or Christian music, but that that's that's a different story. Christians should be out there with a spirit of excellence in whatever secular profession we have. We're eating, we're drinking, and we're doing whatever we do to the glory of God.
Joel Brooks:Daniel recognized that. Second point is this, Daniel understood that God was his judge. That's actually what the name Daniel means. Dani means my judge, and then, L is God. God is my judge.
Joel Brooks:And this proved true throughout his life, because Daniel, he knew he was not judged by what others thought of him, by how others thought if, you know, he was successful or not, or he didn't feel judged by how much money he had or how powerful he became. He was not influenced by those things. God was his judge. Daniel didn't even judge himself. He just let God be his judge.
Joel Brooks:And, do you have any idea how freeing that is? I mean, to be free from weighing yourself or comparing yourself to others, free from the pressure of of always trying to have to get ahead in order to impress others because you know they're judging you, free from having to zoom in on your face after every picture to see if it's a good enough picture to be posted. Who cares what other people think? Free from thinking your life is either a total success or a complete failure based on how you did on the last test, or by what the the scale, what number it gave you when you stepped on it, or by how your kids are performing compared to other kids, to be free from that, and just allow God to be the one who judges you, not anyone else, is the most freeing way to live. This is actually what drove the other two officials crazy.
Joel Brooks:When Daniel got promoted, by default, that meant that they were demoted. So, they became very angry, they became jealous, so the two of them, they got together, they hired, you know, private investigator. We said, hey, we want you to go dig up some dirt on that guy, Daniel. I mean, Daniel's in politics. I mean, there's got to be dirt somewhere.
Joel Brooks:There's skeletons in the closet. You know, so the the investigators are they're going out, they're looking, you know, perhaps Daniel has misused some kind of sludge funds somewhere, or or maybe he has been taking money under the table for certain things. Maybe they could get a tape recorder and they could catch him in a lie or or saying something negative about the king. They are trying to dig up whatever they can. And, they assume there's dirt out there because they assume Daniel's motivated by the exact same things they are.
Joel Brooks:They assume that he's driven by power, he's driven by money, he's driven by prestige or personal glory, just like they were, therefore, there would be a trail of corruption. Mean, you promise these guys a little money under the table, promise them a little bit more power, they'll do whatever to whoever for you. But Daniel, he's he's not driven by any of those things, therefore, he couldn't be controlled by those things. He's free from that. This made the officials hate him even more.
Joel Brooks:At first, they hated him because they thought Daniel was just like them. Then, when they realized Daniel's nothing like them, they hate him more. Here, we see an important lesson for the Christians that that sometimes we'll be loved, sometimes we will be hated, but we will always be misunderstood. If the people love us or they hate us, we will always be misunderstood. Unless God opens people's hearts and minds, they simply cannot comprehend Christ who motivates us.
Joel Brooks:They cannot comprehend somebody whose identity is so rooted in Jesus. Third and finally, Daniel had formed the habit of prayer. These two officials, they knew that the only way to get rid of Daniel is if they could attack him through his faith in God. And Daniel most demonstrated his faith through his prayer life, so that became their means for attack. He prayed three times a day.
Joel Brooks:Apparently, he'd always been in the habit of doing that. And so, men knew exactly when, where, and how to exploit this. They go to King Darius, and they say, you know, you really should make a law that everybody just needs to pray for you. And, like any egotistical, narcissistic king, he's like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. And so, he signs it into law, and this isn't a law that, hey, you can't pray at school, you can't, you know, pray in the public public square.
Joel Brooks:This is... You can't pray, period, unless it's to me. Daniel knew of this law. Daniel knew the consequences of this law, and Daniel still openly prayed just like he had been doing before, just like he'd been doing his entire life because his life was a holy vessel to be used for God's purposes. I mean, of course, he could have decided to close the shutters, prayed quietly in his room, no one would have known, or he could have just walked around, you know, you don't you don't have to actually kneel down and and fold your hands, close your eyes, he could just walk down and prayed silently.
Joel Brooks:But, no, he does this intentionally. He he prays as a act of defiance here, and as an act of public testimony as to the greatness of his God and that he will follow him. God got him through this. God will carry him through this no matter what. I've heard that a lack of prayer is like a warning light for our souls.
Joel Brooks:And, one of my daughters, who will not be named, she called me up, she was driving to school, and she said, dad, the genie light is on. And I was like, the genie light? What what do you mean? She goes, you know, the the genie light. I was like, is this some kind of like Gen Z slang for something?
Joel Brooks:What are what are you talking about? And she goes, you know, the the genie... Yellow genie light thing that has, like, something coming out of it. I was like, the oil light? I mean, I promise you, I raise my kids better than this.
Joel Brooks:I'd I'd really... I'd I'd... She goes, yeah. Yeah. It's it's on.
Joel Brooks:I said, well, how long has it been on? She goes, I don't know. At least yesterday, maybe a little earlier. And I was like, what? It's like, that's the one...
Joel Brooks:That's the most important, like, warning light you have in your car. That comes on, pull over immediately, or you destroy your entire engine. She's like, okay, dad. So she pulls over, and sure enough, her oil her... When I go and check it, she's pretty much on empty in oil.
Joel Brooks:Lack of prayer is that warning light for your soul. Is telling you that you've become proud, self reliant. Prayerlessness is that is that flashing yellow light telling you that, I know you think everything is fine, and you're just kind of driving through life. It's not. It's about to all come crashing down.
Joel Brooks:Daniel is a very important man. He had lots of things to do. I mean, he's practically running a kingdom. And yet, he always had time to pray because he knew he had to pray. He had to.
Joel Brooks:He knew that's the only reason he was where he was in the position he was in. He knew that's the place where he taps into the power he needs. He couldn't imagine doing what he's doing apart from prayer. God forbid that we ever think as a church, there could come a day that we could we could keep going through our programs and programs, and we could go all all of our different ministries, we could pack out different rooms across the street or wherever it is without prayer, as if it was just completely dependent upon us. And, he prayed.
Joel Brooks:I was telling Lauren Starnes this earlier that, you know, he he didn't just pray, he prayed towards Jerusalem. And, this wasn't because, you know, he thought God lived there. It wasn't because the temple is... No, the temple is gone at this point. Jerusalem is...
Joel Brooks:It's rubble. I mean, if he could see hundreds of miles there, it would just be a pile of rubble. The reason he opened the window and he set his heart there, look there, is because he was setting his heart on the promises of God that God would someday establish his kingdom here on earth. A new Zion would come, and He was going to go ahead and live as a part of that city. He's trusting His heart and the promises of God.
Joel Brooks:I am a citizen of that city while I'm serving here in this one. That's why we sing the songs, we sing, we will feast in the house of Zion. We sing about Christ's return when He shall come with trumpet sound, all that. We're setting the affections of our heart towards Christ and His coming, and that we are citizens of that city, and it makes us better citizens here. So we pray.
Joel Brooks:Now, if you try to live like Daniel, if you try to have this both trusting and this defiant faith, you will be a polarizing person. Notice king Darius loves Daniel, loves him, doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. Other people hate Daniel. They're conspiring for for his death. That's what the gospel does.
Joel Brooks:It repels some, it attracts others, or as the apostle Paul says in second Corinthians, it's aroma of life to some and an aroma of death to others. But, there's a fragrance that comes off of us. Some smells like beautiful life and some death. Is that what people smell when they're around you? I I have found that Christians often fall into two camps.
Joel Brooks:You you've got you've got some who are lovey dovey, never confrontational. They only talk about the love of Jesus, and Jesus is basically the the the biggest cheerleader somebody can have, and they're just gonna cheerlead that person all the way to hell. Because when they only present that lovey Jesus He wants to be your friend, no one is ever confronted with their sin. No one ever changes. And then, we have these other Christians who, for lack of a better term, I I would just describe them as militant.
Joel Brooks:They walk around angry at the world, and they delight. They are so happy to point out the sins of others. And, they're often going to express their shock or just like total disbelief. How could anyone believe what you believe about, you know, abortion or about gender or about sexuality? I mean, foolish and they're they're angry at those positions, as if we should be shocked when the world lives like the world.
Joel Brooks:I mean, they're just they're acting according to their nature. They don't know Jesus. We shouldn't be shocked by that. Out of a heart of compassion, we we should share the gospel with them. But, I found that, you have those two camps, those those who are never confrontational, and those who just love the confrontation.
Joel Brooks:And, if you're truly following Jesus, you should be... You should have a little bit of both. There will be times when you're gonna have to confront people, and there's gonna be times when they'll be angry. But then, there are also times where people will look at the way you talk about Jesus, and they're gonna see him so beautiful and attractive. And, we live this life where there's times where people are pulled in, Jesus is irresistible, and then, there's times they will absolutely hate us because we follow Him.
Joel Brooks:That's what being a faithful gospel witness does. We all know how the story ends. Daniel's enemies, they go running to King Darius. Like, hey, we we just happened to be walking by Daniel's house with our binoculars, you know, and and we and we just happened to like... We could just see in there, and we just...
Joel Brooks:We we saw him, he was he was praying, we couldn't hear, but we could read lips, and like he he was praying to his God, Yahweh. As much as it grieved king Darius, he knew he had no choice. He had to cast Daniel into the lion's den. He was thrown into that den. We read that a a stone was put over the mouth of that den, and the den was sealed just like a tomb.
Joel Brooks:The king, he he's up all night worrying, fasting. Daniel's enemies are probably up all night partying. The only one who's asleep, resting is Daniel. You know, my grandson, his name is Daniel, and in their crib, they have little... The the bedsheets are lions.
Joel Brooks:It's the Lions den. I love that. Just just just put him in there. And he usually sleeps. Daniel's put in that lion's den, and he is he is the one at rest.
Joel Brooks:What's the point of the story? Is it be a Daniel? Is that it? We we need all... Just be a Daniel, we need...
Joel Brooks:If we trust God like him, we'll be delivered? Is that the point of this? For some of us, that's that's exactly what we think it is, and that's what we've grown up thinking, and it's I'm imagining for some of us, it's rocked our faith. Or, I've met some people who have abandoned the faith because that's what they think is the point of a lot of the Bible, you trust God and He is supposed to do stuff for you, but then, what life has taught them is that God didn't necessarily deliver in this life. I mean, there's times in the New Testament where Peter is thrown into prison, and church is praying, and lo and behold, an angel comes, releases him from prison.
Joel Brooks:And there's times he isn't. There's times some of the the apostles are thrown into prison, they are delivered also, miraculously, and then there's times where James is killed or Stephen is stoned. God does not always deliver in this life when we trust him. The truth is sometimes the mouths of lions are not closed, and that we are thrown into a pit, and rather than being able to sleep peacefully, we are just torn apart. So, once again, what is the point of the story then?
Joel Brooks:What's the point of any miracles in the Bibles? You're going... As you're going through... You're reading through the New Testament, you know, Jesus is doing all these miracles. What's the point?
Joel Brooks:If it's just to impress people, then it's it's not the... They're not the best miracles. You know, healing Peter's mother-in-law of a fever? Okay. I mean, there's some a little more impressive than others, but Jesus, he went around healing people, you know, casting out some demons.
Joel Brooks:But, more impressive would have been like, hey, mountain, get up, throw yourself in the sea, and it actually happened. He talked about how you could do that in prayer, but he didn't it. What if he had done that? Everybody would have just been so impressed. So, if miracles were just supposed to be a display of power, then you would expect Jesus to be doing that, but his miracles weren't.
Joel Brooks:His miracles were always signs pointing us to something. Always. Usually, when when He is when He is healing someone, He is He is restoring the world the way it was created to be. He's restoring the order. He's showing what a redeemed world is going to look like.
Joel Brooks:And, we see that same thing here. Isaiah 11, we we read when Isaiah is looking at the day coming when God will redeem this whole world. He says, the lion will lay down with the lamb, the calf is going to lay down with the lion, and a little child is going to lead them. He even says a lion will eat straw like the ox. So, get a picture of that here.
Joel Brooks:When Daniel's thrown into that lion's den, he actually gets a little glimpse of what the world will someday be. He also is shown just how God delivers. God didn't deliver Daniel from being thrown into the den. He saved Daniel by being with him in the lion's den, just like he was with Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego in the furnace. Notice God, he didn't just send an angel, we we read that God sent His angel, His angel.
Joel Brooks:This is likely the angel of the Lord, who throughout the Old Testament, whenever you would read the angel of the Lord, that's that's Yahweh himself coming in in human form. And that's how God saves. He comes, and He is present with Daniel. Whether this is the pre incarnate Jesus or not, the angel of the Lord certainly points us to Jesus. It's the point of the entire story.
Joel Brooks:Daniel, at his best, just points us to the greater Daniel, which is Jesus. Jesus who wasn't just good, Jesus was perfect, fully righteous. Just like Daniel here though, he had many people love him and also many people hate him and conspire against him. Also, just like Daniel, he was sealed up in a pit. Stone rolled over it.
Joel Brooks:Just like Daniel, the stone was later rolled away, and Jesus was found to be alive and well. But unlike Daniel, Jesus died. Jesus is the fulfillment of Daniel's name. God is my judge. He's the fulfillment of Daniel's name because Jesus took on God's judgment upon himself, judgment that was due for us in order that we might be spared.
Joel Brooks:That's what this story is about. It's not a moral tale just about how we all need to be better people and just try to make a difference in this world. And if we're really good and we really trust God, bad things won't happen to us. That's not the point. Jesus trusted God more than anyone, more than Daniel.
Joel Brooks:He was torn to shreds. He was sent to the Lions, he was consumed. On the cross, Jesus, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting from Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Joel Brooks:If you read through Psalm 22, you'll read what receiving or absorbing God's judgment feels like. And, we read these words, They opened their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. The very end, there's a prayer for deliverance, and the prayer is, Save me from the mouth of the lion, God. Save me. But Jesus wasn't saved.
Joel Brooks:He wasn't he wasn't delivered. He was torn to shreds for us. We were spared the lion's den of God's judgment because Jesus was thrown into it, and he was devoured for us. He actually died, but then, just like Daniel, he was raised victorious. He wasn't raised victorious from death though, he was raised victorious through it.
Joel Brooks:He had overcome it. So this is our hope that we find here in this text. Jesus loves us so much, he went to the ultimate Lions Den for us, and he paid for our sins. He received our judgment. And then, Jesus defeated death to where we no longer have to fear it.
Joel Brooks:And someday, he will redeem this whole world. We will be given a resurrected body. The lion will lay down with the lamb. The curse will be lifted, and we will live in Jesus' kingdom forever and ever and ever. That's the hope for us.
Joel Brooks:And, that's why Daniel set his heart towards the heavenly city that would come down. Let's pray. Jesus, you are the only hope we have in life and death. We can never be good enough, never faithful enough, never trust enough. But, Jesus, you've done that for us, and you have taken our punishment, and you have given us life.
Joel Brooks:Thank you. Jesus, thank you for being judged on our behalf. And we pray this in your name. Amen.