St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Christ the King – November 26^th, 2006

Dear children of God’s Kingdom,

If you were a king or queen, what country would you like to rule? Would you like to rule a large country or maybe a small island? Would you like to be powerful and mighty or would you rather be a quiet and peaceful country? What kind of a king or queen do you think you would be? Would you be a people’s ruler who always seemed to be doing what was best for your people or would you want to be in complete control and your ideas would be all that matters? Obviously this is a hypothetical question, but it gets us to think about the picture of a king and what kind of king we would want. It makes us think about what kind of ruler would be the best ruler and what country would be the best country.

As we take another week to look at the words that he prophet Daniel recorded for us, we will see the picture of a king and his kingdom. The king is Jesus and the kingdom we see is Jesus’ kingdom, which is not from this world, but it is invisible. Daniel once again was privileged to see God’s work through visions. Today we are going to look at another one of these visions as we look at what Daniel saw in his fourth vision from God. Our theme will draw on the picture of Daniel’s vision:

The text for this morning for this Christ the King Sunday comes from the final portion of Daniel’s account of his vision of the four beasts. Do you remember ever hearing about this vision? This is the vision where God used the picture of four different beasts to represent the four great political powers that would dominate the world for basically the next 500 years. As I’ve said more than once, I enjoy history and especially ancient history. While I know this isn’t everyone’s favorite subject, we are going to see today that history is not just events a long time ago, but history is part of God’s perfect plan for this world

The first beast looked like a lion with wings like an eagle. This is generally understood to represent the Babylonian Empire, which was in power at the time of Daniel and this vision. The second beat was like a bear with three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. This beast represents the Medo-Persian Empire. The third beast looked like a leopard with four wings like those of a bird. This is talking about the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great and the leaders who succeeded him. The fourth beast was described as terrifying and frightening and very powerful. Its teeth were large iron teeth, which crushed and devoured its victims as it trampled everything underfoot. This is a picture of the Roman Empire, which was strong and mighty and destroyed many people in its path.

But the part we don’t want to forget was that after the four beasts were described, Daniel saw "the Ancient of Days." This term is used for God the Father. He is described as Ancient so that we realize that God was around and was powerful long before any of these beasts and countries. He also would be in control and ruling in power and authority long after these other nations were destroyed. It is at this point in time that our text for this morning begins at verse 13. ¹³"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. ¹⁴He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him." What was Daniel trying to point out in these verses? That is what we want to find out this morning. As Daniel’s vision continued it tells us that "one like the son of man" came before the throne of the Ancient of Days.

Who is the "one like the son of man" and why was he approaching the throne of God? In contrast to the beasts that were used to describe all those wicked and powerful nations that would rise up and fall, we see one who is described as a having power and strength as a man – as a king. This of course was talking about Jesus. Many times in the Bible we hear Jesus described as the son of man. Stephen as he was being stoned looked up into heaven and said, "I see... the Son of Man." (Acts 7:56) Even Jesus himself often referred to himself as the Son of Man. He was man as he humbled himself and allowed himself to come into this world and humbly die on the cross for the sins of mankind.

Jesus it says came down and approached the Ancient of Days. Here again we see the wonderful mystery of Jesus who being true man was at the same time true God. The Gospel readings from the Gospel of John of the past few weeks have emphasized that Jesus and the Father are one and that the Father showed the authority and power of his Son Jesus as describes how Jesus his Son will one day come again to judge the living and the dead. Here again we see this intimate relationship between the Father and Son. While Jesus and Father are one God, they have distinct attributes that each uses, but they also have the same qualities such as being all-powerful and all knowing. As true man and true God we soon realize that is impossible for us to ever fully understand the complex nature of our true God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Just as difficult as trying to figure out the triune God, is trying to describe the power that Jesus has as our King. It isn’t as easy as saying he rules over everyone in a certain country, because as Jesus told Pontius Pilate – his kingdom is not of this world. If his kingdom is not of this world, then here is his kingdom? Where is Jesus’ kingdom and what is his kingdom? Is his kingdom a place or is it something else. This is why it is so difficult. He rules over his spiritual kingdom wherever his Word and Sacrament of Lord’s Supper and Baptism are being used. Wherever hearts are hearing this precious gospel message, there is Jesus’ kingdom. As you can see this is not confined to a location or space, but it is more than that. His kingdom is in the hearts of those whose hearts have been changed by the true Gospel of Jesus. He is ruling in this kingdom and yet we can’t even define the boundaries of this kingdom.

But at the same time we can say that Jesus is ruling over all things. This is why it is difficult to pinpoint the work of Jesus as our King. Does Jesus rule over the unbelievers of this world.? In his power and might he does. As he sends rain and sunshine to give us weather to produce food, Jesus is ruling in power. As he sends nations, which will rise to power and then will fall, Jesus is ruling in power. As we saw in our text, there are many things even including what nations will rule and for how long that are under the authority of our heavenly King;. Daniel saw this as the beast were all destroyed and finally the Ancient of Days came to rule over nations.

As we live our lives, we need to remember that our God is in control of all things. He watches over our every move and has a perfect plan for us. He never loses track of us or messes up things in our lives. Everything is working to make sure that his precious gospel is being spread and that more and more people are hearing the good news of Jesus and his work. Some times this means that God will use some pretty difficult things to get our attention again, just as he did with the people of Israel as they even were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. But God’s plan also showed that he forgave them and allowed them to return 70 years later.

But what is more important than which nations will rise and fall and which things are going to fall into place is the reassurance that Jesus kingdom has no boundaries. "His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." It is not limited by race or nationality. It is not limited by time or space. His authority and his rule will never end. Jesus has already defeated the greatest enemy – the Devil and has won a home for us in heaven. Jesus came into this world with one purpose, which was to humbly give his life to save us and all people. He rose gain and now sits at the right hand of God where he rules over all things in might and power.

The problem lies in the fact that most people do not know or trust that Jesus is the very Son of God who is ruling over all things in power and authority. Most people are not interested in Jesus or have looked else whereto find their king. On the Last Day when Jesus will return with all of his might and power on the clouds, all people will see that Jesus is in control of all things. We will see that most people missed the Son of Man and will miss out for an eternity.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the faith of the Old Testament believers. As Daniel wrote these words he is describing for God’s people a person who would come during the rule of the fourth and most terrifying of the beasts. This person is Jesus who came into the world during the rule of the fourth beast, which was the Roman Empire, which was some 500 years later. The Old Testament believers had to trust that these words of Daniel and the other prophets were true. Their faith was based on the solid promise of the coming Savior who would come and save them from more than their earthly problems and from more than earthly leaders. This King that Daniel and all of the Old Testament prophets wrote about was going to have the power to conquer sin and death and give all those who believe eternal life.

As we sit here and talk about our King, we soon realize that we have the privilege to open up God’s book called the Bible and see how Daniel’s words were fulfilled. We can see that the person Daniel talked about actually came just as he was promised for the many years of the Old Testament. Our faith is based on the same Savior as the faith of the Old Testament believers. I pray that we never forgot to thank our Lord for keeping his promises to send a Savior who would rule our hearts and minds through his Word and Sacraments. I pray that we never lose heart as our God promises that he will come again to bring us to our eternal home in heaven. This we can’t see, but just like the Old Testament believers we trust that God has kept his many promises in the Old Testament and that he will keep all his promises in the New Testament. And one day we will see with our own eyes our king and his kingdom that will be everlasting and will never be destroyed. Amen