Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
“As I looked,
thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
A stream of fire issued
and came out from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, Christ. Amen, we are at the close of the Church year, and every year when we do that, we look at the end times. We talk about Jesus's predictions of the return we read from the Book of Revelation. We talk about the signs of His coming. We look forward to the day of the resurrection and the Kingdom that Christ will bring forever and ever. Last week, we asked the question, what will happen on that day? And I did my best to put through the what the Scripture says about the timeline and the things of the Day of Judgment.
And so today, we're not going to go through all of the events and what the Scripture teaches about it. Instead, we're going to ask a question, what does that mean for us now? What does it mean to live now with the end in mind, Christ is coming. His kingdom is secure. What do we do today? Well, the first thing is we look forward to the amazing power of that eternal kingdom.
Daniel. Daniel gives us a wonderful description of the kingdom of Christ on the day of His return. It tells us that He will come and take his seat, and it says a stream of fire issued and came out from before him. 1000 1000s served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. Then it skips a bunch of stuff, and our reading continues and says, And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Daniel gives us an amazing image of Jesus, the Son of God and His Kingdom. It is an eternal kingdom that will never pass away, where all peoples will serve him. I'm not very good at math because I'm a humanities major, but I think 1000 1000s sounds like a lot, maybe 10,000 times 10,000 he doesn't actually mean a number in particular, but it is all peoples. Jesus, Christ return will bring about a kingdom that is almighty, all powerful and eternal, and a kingdom that will not pass away, one that shall never be destroyed.
How do we live with that in mind? I think the first thing we need to realize is that we are citizens of that kingdom. Now this is not just a kingdom that is for the future, but one that is present through Christ. Now, even though it may be hidden, the apostle John writes in his first letter in the third chapter, he says, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is. Pure. So we have this vision of this amazing Eternal Kingdom, and we look forward to hope with the day that it will be fully revealed.
But you have it now in Christ, it is not something to wait. Christ's kingdom is here on Earth, wherever his people are gathered. We aren't waiting for the for it to come. It is here, but hidden. You. We are citizens of that kingdom now God's children, and we partake of it when the spirit comes to us through these word and Sacraments, our King Jesus reigns on his throne. Now we don't have to wait for that Kingdom to be established. Our task now is to remember it beneath the hiddenness of a fallen world. We have a King Who reigns forever our Savior, Jesus, Christ,
first, Peter, chapter one helps us to remember that he writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power, are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
You have this inheritance, you have this gift now, but we are waiting for it to be fully revealed in all its perfection and glory for that day when the Ancient of Days takes his seat and the Son of Man returns with on the clouds with power and glory and is given this eternal dominion. So our job is to remember beneath the hidden, fallenness of this world, the kingdom of Christ is established now, and we are citizens of it, which means we do not need to fear the things that threaten us or seem to even threaten that kingdom. We live in a particularly nervous age, don't we?
We look around and everybody's worried about something, and I think it's easy to see why all the bad things of the world live on a rectangle made of glass in your pocket, right? All the sadness, all the pain, all the hurt, all the hyperbole that our favorite people online say come straight to us with a beep and a notification. So we're all pretty nervous. And I don't know if you know, but we just had an election recently too, and some people are worried we are deluged with depressing, terrible, sad news, some of it true, some of it false, but all of it makes us nervous. That little rectangle in your pocket delivers you all the wars and rumors of wars, the news of famines, earthquakes and all the other stuff that Jesus said would be delivered to us. Perhaps the disciples couldn't imagine a communication network like what we have, but it is still there.
We worry about things like Ukraine, Israel, China, cultural norms and all the stuff that makes the retired people in the room say kids these days, and it gets us worked up and afraid. And sometimes, when people are afraid, they lose sight of the kingdom that is coming, the kingdom we live in now, and turn and try to fix things themselves, or trust in things that seem to be able to say, I can take care of this problem. Trust in Me, human being, but we have a promise that the Son of Man will return on the clouds with power and might and whatever happens now, whether it's on the other side of the world or in your backyard, Christ will make all things new. It doesn't matter how bad the world is or what will happen to you. It doesn't matter if the bad news shows up in your phone or in the doctor's office.
Christ will make all things new. His kingdom is an everlasting. Dominion which shall not pass away. His kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. We can trust in that. It also means that we need not cling to the things that our hearts desire and we think will give us the joy and the happiness we want right now that are contrary to Christ's desires. Our elders have been working through the Large Catechism, and it's really neat to see their reaction to it. One of the elders has been walking around telling everybody, oh, this is so great. I can't believe this guy wrote this in the 1500s it's like he's talking about now. We were reading through the appendix to the first commandment in the Large Catechism, and Martin Luther writes this. He says, For to you, it is a question either of eternal blessing, happiness and salvation, or of eternal wrath, misery and woe. What more would you have or desire than that? He so kindly promises to be yours with every blessing and to protect and help you in all need. But alas, here is the failure that the world believes nothing of this, nor regards it as God word God's word, because it sees that those who trust in God and not Mammon suffer care and want, and the devil opposes and resists them that they have neither money, favor nor honor, and besides, can scarcely support life. Well. On the other hand, those who serve Mammon have power, favor, honor, possessions and every comfort in the eyes of this world. For this reason, these words must be grasped as being directed against such appearances, and we must consider that they do not lie or deceive, but must come true. We look out at a world that trusts in all of the desires that our hearts put against us, but we know that they pale in comparison to the amazing Kingdom that Christ will deliver. What could possibly be better than living in this eternal kingdom of power and might and glory forever and ever and ever, with the Son of God on the throne, in a dominion that will never pass away, a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Martin Luther helps to remind us that these things will disappear. Whatever we set our heart on, they are nothing compared to the glory of that eternal Kingdom when Jesus returns, which means, of course, we have to set aside the desires that we chase after, learn to use the gifts that God gives us for His glory and His Kingdom, and often live in a discipline we dislike, but it's worth it. Jesus is coming. He's coming with power and glory to judge the living and the dead, and we are in Christ, citizens of his kingdom now will be revealed for the children of God, we are to live with Him forever in Jesus, name, amen.
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