"I have many people in this city"

One of the most tender parts of the book of Acts comes in chapter 18. Paul is feeling discouraged in Corinth: having been chased out of town after town, the Lord appears to him:

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city." So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God. (Acts 18:9-11)

A few of us were considering these verses at the Lancaster CU small group leaders' meeting on Tuesday. Christ gives Paul an incredible promise - he had in Corinth 'many people'. These people had not yet believed in him, but they would do so because, as Stott puts it, 'already according to his purpose they belonged to him.' And so we considered the implications of God's sovereignty in evangelism: this conviction did not cause Paul to pack up and go on holiday, but he had the great conviction to keep going as an evangelist, knowing his efforts would not be wasted.

We haven't had a specific word about the campus of Lancaster University - but as we look forward to the great crowd in Revelation, we discussed as to how we can be very optimistic that Christ has 'many people' at Lancaster University - eternally his, but not yet trusting him.

Last night we maybe had a glimpse of some of 'the many' on the campus. The CU organised a 'toastie and question' event from 6pm to 2am. It was quite an amazing event: there were three 'stations' that were all making toasties, and dozens of CU members involved in taking the toasties out, chatting and answering questions.

The stories are still filtering through the CU. A whole football squad listened to a CU member explain something of the gospel; several people want to come to church on Sunday; the campus radio station texted in for a toastie and featured the answer on their station! Literally hundreds of conversations happened over the course of the night.

In a couple of times especially we were aware of God's leading the conversation. In one instance, the CU members were there for nearly 2 hours - a banterous conversation turned very serious, and the CU members were invited back to chat further over dinner. In another conversation, the final question was, 'So how would I become a Christian?'

As we prayed last night, we reflected on Christ's promise to Paul: 'I have many people in this city.' We couldn't help thinking that he has many people on the campus. How precious the conviction of God's sovereignty is in evangelism!

Symptoms of hyper-Calvinism

All of a sudden many of the CU students at Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria seem to be thinking about Calvinism and Arminianism. I think that thinking about the sovereignty of God in this way has got to be a brilliant thing so long as it is done humbly and with Scripture open.

I had one conversation recently with a student on this issue, and we got to talking about hyper-Calvinism (that is, one who goes beyond and over the bounds of what Calvinism teaches, and excessive in application of the doctrines of Calvinism). The student asked me what the symptoms of hyper-Calvinism are.

Tim Challies cites Phil Johnson who theologically defines hyper-Calvinists with a five-fold definition. According to Johnson, a hyper-Calvinist is someone who:

1. Denies that the gospel call applies to all who hear, OR
2. Denies that faith is the duty of every sinner, OR
3. Denies that the gospel makes any “offer” of Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect (or denies that the offer of divine mercy is free and universal), OR
4. Denies that there is such a thing as “common grace,” OR
5. Denies that God has any sort of love for the non-elect.

So what then would be the symptoms of slipping into hyper-Calvinism? It would seem to me that there are several:

1. A lack of commitment to evangelism and world mission (possibly even an unwillingness to evangelise at all - or at least to evangelise without appealing that non-believers accept and believe the gospel);
   
2. A lack of commitment to political engagement and the desire to improve society (because there is no common grace in non-believers);
3. A perceived lack of value in anything made by non-believers (again rooting from the belief that no common grace exists). Art, for instance, is seen as something made by a reprobate person rather than someone made in the image of God using their God-given talents;
4. A tendency towards arrogance and elitism, and an attitude of deploring the 'non-elect';
   
5. A strongly fatalistic prayer life that does not seek to grow in relationship with the Father;
6. A lack of assurance (because the believer is constantly looking for evidence within themselves that they really are elect).

What do others think? (It's worth noting that I know at least two people who have rejected a Calvinistic understanding of Scripture, to my mind because they equate Calvinism and hyper-Calvinism).

Bureaucracy and the glory of God

So the last few weeks have been punctuated by regular phone calls to Moldova, last minute faxes (I'd never even sent a fax before two weeks ago!) and lots of prayer.

UCCF in the North West has had a long-standing commitment to partnering with the IFES movement in Moldova, CSC. As part of this, we raised money for two Moldovan Christian students to come over to be part of the New Word Alive conference. On paper, it sounded easy. In reality, it's been really hard work to try and make this opportunity happen. It feels that at every turn, we have been thwarted.

As I write, the British Embassy are still looking over the paper work over the Moldovans that are due to come over. Their flight is due to leave at 5.30am Moldovan time tomorrow. In some ways it's a miracle that we've got this far. I'm praying like mad that the visas will be granted in the next three hours and this time tomorrow I'll have met the Moldovan brothers at Heathrow.

The last few days have been a strange mixture of emotions. I've been absolutely humbled and forced to rely on God. I've examined my heart. I've argued in prayer. I've told God that (although I could be wrong) I can't possibly see how he gets more glory with these Moldovan lads staying at home. I can't see why God would want these resources of time and sacrificial giving apparently wasted. I've wondered whether God is wanting to change me in this whole process so I'm called to rely more wholeheartedly on him.

Funnily enough (some might say sovereignly!) I've just found myself writing this paragraph as I put together some cell notes for the University of Cumbria CU on 1 Samuel 1-2:

Hannah’s story should not be read as a promise that God will always remove physical problems, or that he will always get rid of barrenness amongst godly women (although it’s true that the passage does underline the power of believing prayer). The main thing that the writer is trying to illustrate is God’s sovereignty over events: Samuel will become a great and much-needed leader in Israel. If Hannah had had a son at an earlier date, she would never have left him at the house of the LORD in Shiloh. Because Samuel did grow up there, God was preparing him for his future life – to be a man of God and prophet, used to the public gaze and ready for leadership of Israel.

I guess that, regardless of whether or not the visas come through, God works out all things for the good of those who love him. It's a truth I'm still learning.

UPDATE: The British Embassy has closed for the day. I'm about to see if we can change the dates of the Moldovans' flights. I pray on.

God the Over-Ruler and Judge (Genesis 50:15-21)

Here's an evangelistic sermon I'm preaching at the weekend. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

We’re looking this morning at a part of Joseph’s story, which the young people have been looking at this week. One of the reasons why the Joseph narrative is so popular is because it’s a brilliant ‘good news, bad news’ story. The story opens with daddy’s favourite Joseph arrogantly telling his brothers that he dreamt they were bowing down to him – not exactly the sort of thing that anyone ever wants to hear their younger brother tell them! And so the brothers get jealous of Joseph, fake his death, sell him into slavery in Egypt and let their father hold a funeral – bad news. Joseph ends up chief slave in one of the most important houses in Egypt – good news. But his master’s wife frames Joseph because she wouldn’t sleep with him: he’s sent to rot in prison on a false charge of rape – bad news. There he meets Pharoah’s cupbearer, who mentions Joseph to Pharoah. He ends up Prime Minister of Egypt – good news. Meanwhile, there’s famine in Canaan, where Joseph’s family live – bad news. And so Joseph’s brothers go cap in hand down to Egypt – and who should they find there but Joseph! At first, we’re not sure whether this is good or bad news, given the way they’ve treated Joseph. Eventually, the brothers reappear, bringing Jacob, Joseph’s father, who he’s not seen for 22 years. And it’s good news. Joseph welcomes his father and brothers and provides for them in Egypt.

Our account opens today towards the end of the story, shortly after the death of Joseph’s dad, Jacob. Had this been an episode of EastEnders, the thuds at the end of the episode would have come as Jacob breathes his last. Joseph’s brothers are looking anxiously at each other knowing everything might have just changed. Yes – they had been welcomed by their brother into Egypt, but that had been whilst their father was alive. Siblings often treat each other in one way when they are being watched by mum or dad, but in a very different way once the parental gaze has averted. Now Jacob is dead. Verse 15 summarises the brothers’ predicament: ‘When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?"’

Perhaps we can empathise with Joseph’s brothers. We all know what it’s like to think we’ve been forgiven by someone for something we’ve done wrong, only for them to bring that issue up months or even years later. That’s the situation facing Joseph’s brothers. Sure, he seems to have forgiven them, but the brothers ask: is Joseph’s forgiveness genuine? Yes, Joseph calls himself a worshipper of the LORD, the one true God, but is his godliness real? And so the brothers hatch a plan.

Look down at verses 16-17: ‘[The brothers] sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father."’

Here’s the brothers’ plan: "Let's tell Joseph that dad said he should treat us kindly and forgive us for all we did to him." Their aim is to emotionally manipulate Joseph into forgiving them through fabricating a death wish that their father apparently made. There’s something quite powerful about offending the dying wish of a loved one. And the brothers plan to use this to effect, attempting to manoeuvre forgiveness from Joseph. You can imagine them relating this to Joseph! “Did you hear dad say that he should forgive us?” “Oh yes, loud and clear, didn’t you?”

Joseph’s reaction comes at the end of verse 17: ‘When their message came to him, Joseph wept.’ But these aren’t tears at being forced into forgiving those you don’t really want to forgive. No. Joseph knew exactly what his father had said on his death bed. Chapter 49 tells us that Joseph was there. Having been unnecessarily separated from him for 22 years, you can imagine that he wasn’t about to give up any more time with the dad he loved. Instead, Joseph’s tears are because he knows that his brothers still don’t trust him. They snub his pardon and keep refusing to trust him, ‘just in case’.

Joseph sees right through his brothers’ plot. And their response is given in verse 18: ‘His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.’ Joseph’s brothers know that he’s seen right through their plan, and so their only chance is to beg for mercy.

Picture the scene. Those who’ve caused Joseph such pain, so many wasted years; are now down on the floor, at his feet, begging for mercy. How would you respond if your enemy came and threw themselves at your feet like this? There are several possible alternatives. One is vengeance. Another might be to act upon your position of superiority: to them to get used to staying down there by your feet. The third option is to forgive.

It’s that third option that Joseph takes. And I want us to look in more detail at the words Joseph says to his brothers here, and in particular his convictions about God. These words help us to see why Joseph chose to treat his brothers as he did, but they’ll also show us what the God of the Bible, the one true God, is really like.

The first thing that Joseph says is in verse 19: “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” Joseph picks up his brothers from the floor by the scruffs of their necks. Joseph’s line of thought is clear. It is not up to me, he says, to take into my own hands the issue of making things right. Evening the score doesn’t settle anything. Instead, what beautiful words Joseph has for his brothers when they come begging for their lives: "Am I in the place of God?"

But with these words, Joseph also reminding his brothers of something else: that his own judgement isn’t the most important thing. Joseph probably knows that he’s unfit to judge his brothers anyway. He’s only human. As humans, whenever we make a judgement, we’re liable to get it wrong. We can’t see things as they really are. We jump to hopelessly wrong conclusions: we see two plus two and make five. Or our judgement gets swayed and put out of perspective. We’re cut up on the motorway and we start thinking that only the death penalty would make things right! Or somebody treads on our toes by accident and we seethe with anger. But God is perfectly placed to judge. He knows everything. He won’t jump to the wrong conclusion. He judges with pinpoint accuracy. And he judges fairly. He won’t let evil have the last say in his Universe.

As a worshipper of the God of the Bible, Joseph knows all this. Joseph knows that, one day, God will judge. But the actions of his brothers show they’re far from understanding this: first of all they try to manipulate Joseph’s judgement, then they try to earn it. To the brothers, the most important forgiveness they can receive is that of Joseph; theit forgiveness and reputation from Joseph paramount. But Joseph’s question reminds his brothers that a far more important forgiveness to receive is that of their God and Judge. He knows that his brothers wouldn’t be acting the way they have if they’d factored in God.

Joseph’s words to his brothers speak to us too. Yes: being right with other humans is important. But being right with the God who will judge is of supreme importance. Jesus himself taught this truth to his disciples, in Luke 12: "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

“Am I in the place of God?”, then, is the question that Joseph asks. “God will judge you – worship him,” says Joseph. In doing so, Joseph compels his brothers to walk faithfully with God.

The second part of Joseph’s answer comes in verse 20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

The Bible says much about suffering and pain than it does here, far more than I can possibly mention now. What Joseph says here isn’t the complete answer when it comes to suffering and pain. But notice Joseph’s headline: God transforms evil to good.

And it’s not as if, in saying this, Joseph didn’t know what it was like to suffer. He was betrayed by his brothers and left for dead, had his death faked, sold into slavery in Egypt, falsely convicted of rape, left in prison for many years, not able to attend his mother’s funeral or burial, and missed decades of a loving relationship with his father. Joseph suffered greatly. Perhaps there are people here that resonate with bits of Joseph’s experience; you’re in a painful season of your life. Each day you wake up and it feels like the water is already up to your chest. Well Joseph knew exactly how that feels.

Yet Joseph looks back over the horrors that he has experienced throughout his life and realises that, through these experiences, God has been working things out for good.

He tells it as it is, firstly saying to his brothers: “You intended to harm me.” Now Christianity is very realistic: you can call evil things ‘evil’. Most folk today say that people are good at heart and occasionally slip up. But that paralyses us when genuinely evil things happen. We haven’t got a category for those things. The Bible’s diagnosis is that we are, at heart, bad and diseased into a pattern of rebelling against God. And so, as Christians, we reserve the right to be angry at evil and to be horrified by it, because God is. And that’s what Joseph does. “You meant to destroy my life, you ruined much of it,” says Joseph. “What you did was bad.”

But he continues: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” Because people are essentially bad, to rely on people to improve things will never bring long term happiness. But the Christian’s hope is in God – and that’s to whom Joseph directs his brothers’ attention. God can work things out for good; even out of ugliness, even out of evil. It’s not that bad things come from God; rather, he’s big enough to use even evil for his purposes of good. And I guess there are plenty of Christians this morning who can point to exactly this experience in their lives.

On holiday in Turkey, Linda and I were taken to a Turkish carpet factory. There were amazingly ornate carpets. It took years or even decades to make them. Now from the bottom of a loom, all we could see was a mess, a load of knots. But from the top, the carpets were beautiful, real works of art. And what Joseph is saying is that life is a tapestry that God is weaving together. From the bottom of the loom, all we see is knots. But from the top, God is weaving together a wonderful tapestry. Life is not all knots, it is tapestry. Although things seem out of control, both in the history of nations and in the lives of individuals, the Bible teaches that God works out things, even evil things, for his good plan. All of history is in God’s hands.

That’s why Joseph can forgive his brothers. For Joseph, God is not only ruler, but he is over-ruler. Joseph’s brothers intended him harm but, later in his life, Joseph can look at the tapestry of his life and see that God has over-ruled their wicked intentions to bring about his good purposes: for Joseph to be Prime Minister of Egypt so that he can save many lives from famine. Things appear far from under the control of God, but he over-rules to the contrary.

So we’ve seen Joseph testifying to two truths about God: that God is the Judge, who judges with perfect knowledge and justice; and that God is the Over-Ruler, who is big enough to use even the worst of human evil to work out his good purposes.

These two truths about God take us right to the heart of the Christian message. God hasn’t changed since the time of Joseph. His goodness means that evil must be judged. Each of us rightly deserves God’s judgement for failing to live his way. Left just as we were, we’d ruin heaven. We need to be forgiven and we need to be transformed.

Amazingly, the way in which God achieves this is through the grossest act of human evil: through the condemnation of the perfect, innocent Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus never rebelled against God. He always put the will of his Heavenly Father and the needs of other humans before himself. One of the people knew Jesus best, Peter, wrote, "Jesus committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." Yet the litmus test of human evil was seen in the rejection of Jesus. Despite having lived a beautiful life that never looked to itself, Jesus was condemned to death – even death on a cross.

Yet the conviction of the earliest Christians was that, just like in the story of Joseph, God used this evil to work out his own good purpose. In the first ever church sermon, Peter said to the very ones that oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus: “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Do you see the pattern? God’s plan – “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge” – in the midst of human sin – “You, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

So what was God doing? In the most awful act of human violence and injustice, God’s design was that, in his love and in human form, he would take the punishment that we deserved. Jesus died our death. Jesus died in the place of all of those who would trust him. At the cross, he took the full force of the Father’s anger for our rebellion against him, so that we can approach God the Judge acquitted. He took our condemnation and God-forsakenness so that we might be forgiven. The most horrific act of violence is transformed by God for good. At first, at Jesus’ crucifixion, it looks like things are a bunch of knots. Yet Jesus himself claimed that this very act that is the centrepiece of the most beautiful tapestry we could imagine. And the tapestry points to the wonder and goodness of its designer, the God of the Universe.

There may be some here that had always thought that Jesus’ death was a horrific accident, one who died too young. Perhaps you’d never caught sight of God’s love in this way before. Well, keep coming. Here at Christ Church, there are Christians who would love you to help you to find answers for your questions and to help you to discover the relationship with God through Jesus that Joseph and others here this morning know. Even better, why not come back to God today, grasping for yourself what God has done through Jesus’ sacrifice to bring you into relationship with him. It would be an amazing thing to have come here today, out of a relationship with God, and go home reconciled to him.

Spot the difference

A thought that came to me again as I studied chapter 3 of Habakkuk (perhaps my favourite minor prophet) with my Relay Workers yesterday...

Habakkuk 1: Habakkuk sees God's character through the lens of his circumstances.
Habakkuk 3: Habakkuk sees his circumstances through the lens of God's character.

For a more in depth thought, see an earlier post I wrote here (re-reading this is a reminder of how quickly we forget those things we think we have learned!)

Blackpool School of Art and Design CU

Today I met with Sam, a Christian at Blackpool School of Art and Design, who is planning to set up a CU there in September.

I found this meeting exciting for a whole number of reasons. One of them is that until a couple of weeks ago, I never even realised that there was a degree-level Art College there. Another is the timing: if I'd received a request to help support a CU there before this year there's no way I could have done it. But with the arrival of Adam as Cumbria staff worker, there's now extra time to help. Sam's own story of coming to faith and God's work in his since was exciting. And, perhaps most excitingly of all, he was really keen to be part of the FREE Gospel Project, and even reckons that there's a good chance that all 400 students at his college could be offered a copy of Mark's Gospel. All in all, I came away really celebrating God's sovereignty.

Daniel 1-7: God's incredible sovereignty

Here's the script of a talk I gave at the University of Cumbria CU in Lancaster this week, overviewing Daniel 1-7. I was helped by Mark Dever's overview. Comments, as ever, are very welcome.


And so we come to the end of our series in the book of Daniel 1-7 – perhaps a book that some here won’t really have looked at since Sunday School. Over the past weeks, we’ve looked at some of the famous passages – the fourth man in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lions’ den – and some more obscure passages too. I wonder what the big lesson that you’ll take away is.

Often the way that we read Bible books like Daniel is that we make heroes of the main characters. It’s often the way that things are taught in Sunday School. When we come to a book like Daniel, we look at the main character and see the main message as being something like this: be like the main character. In the case of Daniel, that means stand up to peer pressure, just like Daniel did. Standing for truth under pressure is something we see Daniel doing time and again in the book. In Chapter 1, Daniel stands up for his diet; for uncomfortable truth in Chapter 2; in Chapter 6, he’s standing up for his faith; his friends take a stand against the king in Chapter 3. In other words, Daniel and his friends stay faithful to God when it seems that just about everyone else has given up on him. There’s no doubt that Daniel is a real hero of faith. But such an approach to the book of Daniel falls into the trap of making a common mistake when coming to the Bible. The stories are misunderstood. Because, of course, the book isn’t just a story about Daniel, it’s about God. God is the great hero of the book of Daniel, just as he is throughout the whole Bible. Behind the scenes, God is the great hero orchestrating everything.

Let’s see an example of this in Chapter 1. It opens in 605 BC with Judah having been carted off into exile in Babylon. On the face of it, it was a humiliating defeat for the people of Judah. Not only that, it’s inevitable that in Babylonian society this would have been interpreted in religious terms. Babylon thrashed Judah. And the Babylonians would certainly have seen this as their gods having triumphed over the God of Israel. Meanwhile, in Babylon, Daniel – who’s probably student-aged at the time – is brought into an educational system designed to indoctrinate the cream of Israelite society with Babylonian ways. How will he survive? Well, you’ll probably remember that Daniel refuses to eat the meat given to him – perhaps to avoid being made ceremonially unclean – and so persuades the official to give him vegetables. Yet, against the odds, Daniel knuckles down, becomes the high flier on his course and out-performs all the others, eventually ending up in an influential position. You can see that, from his human perspective, this might lead us to thinking that Daniel is basically a biblical tract on ‘how to say ‘no’ to bullies under peer pressure.’

But look again at Chapter 1, and we see that it’s written not only from a human perspective, but also from God’s perspective. Why did Judah end up in Babylon? Have a look at verse 2: ‘And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.’ How did Daniel end up being allowed to refuse the Babylonian food? See verse 9: ‘Now God caused the official to show favour and sympathy to Daniel.’ How were the young men from Judah so successful in their education? Verse 17: ‘To these young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.’ Do you see what is going on? God is the chief actor behind all events. In other words, Babylon has taken Judah over, but it’s clear that the Lord has allowed Babylon to take over. God made an official show Daniel favour and, ultimately, through giving him the gift of interpretation of dreams and visions, God gave Daniel an influential position as one of the top politicians and advisors in Babylon. 1:21 tells us Daniel held this position for 70 years! It would be like one of the advisors to Winston Churchill still being an advisor to Gordon Brown today – quite extraordinary!

Chapter 1 shows us that, far from the way he would have been spoken about by the Babylonians, he was alive, active and completely in control of everything.

We get the same idea repeated in Chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar has been dreaming about a giant statue which is a mixture of great glory and crazy instability. The statue is full of contradiction – it’s made partly of costly and valuable and strong materials, but it’s feet are made partly of brittle pottery. And then in the dream – verse 34 – a rock appears, which has not been cut out of a quarry by men, only to smash the feet of clay of the statue, and causing the whole thing to crash down. And then everything is reduced to dust and blown away by the wind. But not the rock, this takes on a life of its own – it keeps expanding and expanding until it fills the whole horizon.

There’s a lot that could be said here. But the main point is this: God shows – again – that he is alive and active and completely in control of everything by helping Daniel to interpret the dream, even though Nebuchadnezzar refuses to tell anyone the details of the dream. And what’s the content of the dream? The lesson is this: the very same point. History isn’t the result of a series of random events. It’s not even primarily the out-workings of the plans of political leaders and the movers and shakers of this world, although their decisions are real and personal; it’s the arena in which the God of heaven works out his plans for the good of his people and for the glory of his name. Behind the scenes of human history is God’s invisible hand.

Empires come and go at God’s bidding. "You are not in control," says God. "I am." God is the King behind all of the other kings. God uses the real decisions that political leaders make to achieve his purposes. So after the Babylonian Empire came the Medo-Persian Empire, then the Greek Empire and then the Roman Empire, which is the iron and clay legs. Since then there have been other Empires – the British Empire, the German Reich, the Soviet Empire, and I suppose today the American Empire. All come and flourish for a while, and then they go. They all come and go, as ordained by God. Sometimes it may seem like things have spun out of control – as they do today in Zimbabwe and North Korea and elsewhere – but the situations in these places have not caught God by surprise. God is alive and active and completely in control. (And I know that that is a massive comfort to many of the Christians in Zimbabwe). God has the whole world in his hands.

Well, let’s begin to think about the implications of God’s sovereignty. What does it mean for each of us today that God is in control?

Firstly, I think we have to realise that as those who live in God’s Universe, he is in complete control of our lives. The book of Daniel shows that God cares about and is in control of the big things – like nations and politics – but also that he cares about individuals, like Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and Nebuchadnezzar.

Recently, I was reading Psalm 121 – and unfortunately the thrust of the passage is lost by the English language. In English, we only have one word for the word ‘you’. So if I said, ‘I’m really mad with you!’, it wouldn’t be obvious whether I was just mad with one person or with everyone.

In Psalm 121, both of those ‘you’s are employed. In verses 3-4, the psalmist says, ‘He will not let your foot slip’ – this is the plural ‘you’. The Message puts it like this: ‘He won’t let you stumble. Not on your life! Israel’s Guardian will never doze or sleep.’ In other words, the verses are saying that God is in complete control of his people as a whole.

And yet, in the verses that come, we see that God is also sovereign over individuals. He’s not just bothered about the nation as a whole, but the individuals that make up that nation. Often we can think that God is in control of the Universe – yes – but it seems like in our own lives things are still spinning out of control. And so it’s particularly precious that the psalm continues, with the singular ‘you’: ‘The LORD watches over you (individually) – the LORD is the shade at your right hand’. Each of God’s people is cared for individually, and God is sovereign over all of our individual circumstances. If God is the Good Shepherd then, so to speak, he shepherds his flock in ones.

This is a word to those that are suffering. Sometimes it can feel like we might have somehow squirmed out of God’s hand and away from his care. The book of Daniel reminds us God is big enough. He has you in his hands. More than that, God uses all of our circumstances – even awful things – to work out his plans. We see that at the cross: the most heinous crime of all time is used by God to bring about ultimate good. And he promises to use all circumstances of a Christian to make us more like Jesus, relying all the more on God and being freed from the power of sin in our lives. As Romans 8:28 puts it, ‘God works all things out for the good of those who love him.’ Perhaps you’re hurting today and you’re working whether God’s really there. Well you need to know that we’re not always able to unravel why certain things happen. But the Christian faith is a relationship with a God known to be wholly trustworthy – he is in control and he is kind and he uses even our sufferings to bring us to experience our relationship with him more deeply.

God’s sovereignty over our lives also says something to the rest of us, too, and it’s this: God’s way is always best. If we think that God isn’t in control, then sometimes we’ll find ourselves in circumstances and think that God’s way may not be best. However, if we’re convinced not only that God made us and knows us inside out, but also that he is in complete control, then we can know that his word for our lives is completely trustworthy. If I think God isn’t in control, sometimes I’ll compromise on what he asks me to do when it’s hard and costly and sacrificial. But if I’m convinced he’s good and in control, I’ll surrender my life to him. Let’s each be convinced of God’s sovereignty in our lives.

Another implication of the fact that God is alive and active and in control of human history bring us to our second and final point: that history is heading to a particular point. Without God, life is hopeless. If God didn’t exist, then we would find ourselves as meaningless people as part of a meaningless human race living in a meaningless universe that will just keep expanding forever. If God doesn’t exist, then our lives don’t matter and nor do our actions. Nothing has any ultimate value.

That’s the way that King Belshazzar lived, without reference to God. Remember the scene? As Chapter 5 opens, Belshazzar and his cronies are toasting each other using the LORD’s goblets, the world seemingly at their feet. But then everything changes as the writing comes on the wall. Belshazzar had been living without God. And, then, just six hours later, there he is, lying dead on the palace floor. It’s such a tragic ending to the chapter: Belshazzar lying dead amidst the temple goblets from Jerusalem, the dregs of the wine still in his stomach and spilled upon the floor. What was his life with its drinking, feasting and all its pleasures - what was that worth when it was weighed by God? Found wanting. Empty, noisy, and quickly over.

I wonder if that idea makes you feel slightly uneasy; the idea that God will judge and that he will have the last say in his Universe. Unfortunately, I think the biblical teaching about God’s judgement is unhelpfully caricatured. But one of the things that the book of Daniel reminds us again and again is that God alone has the right to rule over each of us and judge us. To those that struggle with this idea, I want to ask this question: how wide do you think that God’s reign is? The God revealed in the book of Daniel is the Lord of history, the God of every individual and he is passionately good – which means that he will not let evil have the last say in his Universe.
And so that means this: history won’t just keep rumbling on forever. The fact that God’s kingdom is coming is repeated throughout the book of Daniel, but particularly in Chapters 2 and 7. It’s heading to a fixed point: a point where God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, where God will end all the suffering, where he will cleanse everything, when all wrongs will be righted and everything will be put right. The fullness of the kingdom of God when God’s perfect rule is perfectly made known to all is the reality to which human history is heading. God’s word is as sure as his character – which means that we are closer to Jesus’ return and the end of history as we know it than we were at the beginning of this talk.

And so that brings us, very topically, to the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. As we remember Good Friday tomorrow, we’ll remember of the just judgement of God that we rightfully face. But we’ll also remember God’s mercy and grace and love for us, through which God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived the perfect life. God in human form died on the cross for the punishment of our sins; the punishment that was rightly ours fell upon Jesus, our voluntary substitute.

On Sunday, we’ll remember Jesus resurrection. We’re reminded that Jesus is alive, that death could not hold him – the ultimate proof that God is alive and active and in perfect control of his world. The resurrection shows us that Jesus really is the King and Judge of the Universe, just as we see in Daniel 7 – not even death is outside of his control. And the resurrection shows that God’s wrath really has been exhausted by Christ on the cross – which means that those trusting in him have no fear of condemnation when he returns to Judge. Those who are trusting Jesus are forgiven because Christ was forsaken on the cross.

I think a couple of things have particularly struck me this year as I’ve been preparing for Easter. One is the fact that God has been able to find a way for sinners like me to be part of his perfect new creation, where I won’t mess it up having been given a completely fresh start and having been made new. We receive Jesus’ perfect record and have been transformed.

And the other thing that has struck me is that every other religion tells you to live better so that God will accept you. We can never live good enough lives for God. But, amazingly, God has seen us in our need and come and lived a good life for us, then through the cross credited it to us. And that is why Jesus’ life and death is our only hope. God, in Jesus Christ, can accomplish what we in our own faithlessness cannot – again, something that the book of Daniel has underlined for us.
So let’s draw to a close. Let’s look back on our studies in Daniel and not see them as just a guide of what to do when times of peer pressure come. But let’s open our eyes to the amazing God that is revealed: completely sovereign and in control and not dead but alive. As we finish, let’s listen to how Cyrus described God in Chapter 6:

"He is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed,
his dominion will never end.
He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions."

Our God is the living God, he is the Lord of history. He is the rescuing God who, not only rescued Daniel, but has rescued us too from our sin and our judgement. This Easter, let’s live again in the light of what God has revealed about himself.