Scripture: Daniel 12: 5-13
Sermon: Apocalypse Now
Topics: apocalypse, end times, hope
Preached: July 22, 2018
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble:
We looked at Daniel 6 a few weeks ago.
Now we will read from Daniel 12.
That leaves a gap, a large gap, of chapters 7-11.
This is what is called the Apocalyptic section of Daniel.
Daniel has visions and dreams of what is happening and what will happen.
These visions leave Daniel terrified (7:28)
They leave him sick (8:27)
They leave him powerless (10:9).
But then we have chapter 12.
Chapter 12 begins with the clearest Old Testament reference to the resurrection of the dead, and then it has this conclusion:
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and two others appeared, one standing on this bank of the stream and one on the other. 6One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was upstream, ‘How long shall it be until the end of these wonders?’ 7The man clothed in linen, who was upstream, raised his right hand and his left hand towards heaven. And I heard him swear by the one who lives for ever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be accomplished.
8I heard but could not understand; so I said, ‘My lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?’
9He said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the end. 10Many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked shall continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.11From the time that the regular burnt-offering is taken away and the abomination that desolates is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12Happy are those who persevere and attain the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. 13But you, go your way, and rest; you shall rise for your reward at the end of the days.’
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
In the spring of 2011, Harold Camping,
a radio evangelist,
was proclaiming to everyone
that the world would come to an end on May 21, 2011.
His followers believed him.
Some of his followers sold their homes, their businesses.
Some contributed thousands of dollars
to set up billboards across the country
with the words:
May 21 JUDGMENT DAY
The Bible guarantees it
“Cry mightily to the Lord.”
His followers were so sure the end was coming on May 21,
that one man drove 3000 miles across the country
just so he could be with his family when the END came.
May 21 came …. and went.
The sun rose. The sun set.
Mr. Camping quickly issued a statement.
He had made a slight miscalculation.
The end would now be October 21, 2011.
THE END OF THE WORLD
We hear this story,
we may even remember when it was all over the news,
and we think, “talk of the end of the world is for crazy people.”
If that is the case,
then there seem to be a lot of crazy people.
That is because we live in a culture obsessed by the end of the world.
“Why we are so obsessed with the end of the world” is actually the title of an article written recently by Christian Lorentzen in the New York Times Magazine.[1]
In this article, he lists many of the movies,
the TV shows,
the novels,
that have “the end of the world” as the main plot.
The list is long. Very long.
But our obsession with the end of the world is not only in the field of our creative imagination and the arts.
It is also in things like steel and concrete.
Not so long ago, a company bought the Atlas missile silo in Kansas.
They began to convert the silo into a whole complex of
underground luxury condominiums
which they call Survival Condominiums.
Their sales pitch?
If there is a global disaster,
you can live quite comfortably in one of these condos for at least 5 years.
The cost for the smallest unit? 1.5 million.
The cost for the largest unit? Just over 3 million.
I am not making this up.
Check out survivalcondo.com
If you are at all interested, I am sorry, but they are all sold out.
Apparently the interest was so high
they are now planning to build a second silo.
The end of the world.
or, to use another word, The Apocalypse.
Look up the word Apocalypse in the dictionary,
and it will say, “the end of the world,
or the complete destruction of the world.”
No wonder just the word Apocalypse conjures up
images of destruction
and death
and desolation.
No wonder the word Apocalypse
strikes fear in our hearts
and despair in our souls.
Think about the Apocalypse long enough,
and suddenly those condos in Kansas do not seem so crazy.
APOCALYPTIC BIBLICAL LITERATURE
Here is the very sad thing about this word Apocalypse.
The way we use this word now
is so different from its original meaning.
Our English word comes for the Greek verb apocalupto.
The Greek verb apocalupto means to reveal, or to uncover.
The noun form, apocalupsis, means a revelation or an uncovering.
The two largest pieces of what we call apocalyptic literature in the Bible
are found at the end of Daniel in the Old Testament,
and in the book of Revelation in the New Testament
(which, by the way is called The Apocalypse in Greek )
This apocalyptic literature
was not written to be some kind of puzzle we are supposed to figure out
so we know when the end of the world is coming.
No, the apocalyptic literature was written
with one main purpose:
to reveal,
to draw back the curtain of history,
to give people a glimpse of the Big Picture.
Apocalyptic literature was not written to bring fear.
It was written to bring hope.
The Apocalyptic visions of Daniel and John
were meant for suffering people,
despairing people,
hurting people,
who could only see the world as getting worse and worse.
Look at the book of Daniel.
The first half of Daniel,
Daniel 1-6, are all hero stories.
Every time God’s faithful ones,
namely Daniel and his friends,
get into trouble,
they end up the winners.
Every time.
We love these stories
of these heroes
resisting the Empire
by eating vegetables,
by being thrown into a fiery furnace,
by being thrown to lions.
and WINNING!
But then there are chapters 7-11.
These are much darker chapters.
In 1-6 the faithful ones are always winners,
In 7-11the faithful ones are always losers.
In chapters 7-11
there are visions of Beasts arising and destroying.
There are dreams of evil kingdoms devouring the earth.
This is what God’s people were actually experiencing
when the Book of Daniel was written.
The Seleucid Empire – the Greek-speaking empire –
was crushing God’s people.
They were winning.
God’s people were losing.
People were dying. Whole families were dying.
They were facing the End of their world.
And they began to ask themselves, “Is it worth it?
Is our faithful resistance worth it
if all we are going to do is die?”
Centuries later,
the young church of Jesus Christ
found itself in exactly the same situation.
The Empire, this time the Roman Empire,
had turned against the believers.
People were dying.
Whole families were dying.
They were facing the End of their world.
People began to ask, “Is it worth it?
is it worth it to follow this Jesus
if all we are going to do is die?”
VALUE OF APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
The end of Daniel,
and the book of Revelation
were both written to and for suffering people.
They were written to and for people who were asking,
“Was it worth it?
“How long must this agony go on?”
What this apocalyptic literature does
is that it pulls back the curtain,
it unveils what is hidden,
it reveals what is concealed.
It tells and shows the faithful ones
that in spite of all appearances,
in spite of all the calamities,
in spite of all the suffering,
God governs this World.
God holds both the present and the future.
In the end, there will be justice.
In the end, there will in fact be a glorious resurrection:
a resurrection to everlasting life for the faithful.
The End will be glorious.
Do not fear the End.
Yearn for it.
Ache for.
CONCLUSION — SMEDES and DANIEL
At the end of his memoir, My God and I,
Lewis Smedes finds himself
yearning for God
and aching for God
to finally come and make all things new and right.
He is Dreaming of it.
He is Desiring it.
But he admits he is not sure he fully believes it.
It seems too big a hope,
too beautiful a dream,
too wonderful a desire.
Will the End really be as wonderful as we are promised?
Daniel seemed to have wondered the same thing
as he listened to these two heavenly messengers
dressed in linen
standing on either side of that stream.
He asked.
“Is that really what the outcome will be?
Is that really how it will all end?”
Earlier this year
Various people were asked the question:
“If the world was ending,
what would your last message be?”
Jane Goodall, the naturalist, said with disbelief:
“Our planet cannot come to an end.
It must just be dormant.
We shall have another chance.”
James Dyson, the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, said with defiance:
“I do not believe the world will end.
Engineers will find a way to avoid catastrophe.”
Richard Dawkins, the author and scientist, said with grief:
“We dreamed of a final Theory of Everything…
It is among our griefs that we perished before we could reach it.”[2]
But here we have Daniel,
facing what for him
and his people looked like the end of the world.
And the message,
the hopeful message of the resurrection that he receives
seems too good to be true.
He can hardly believe it.
“Is that really how it will all end? He asks
And what is the message,
the final message he gets,
here at the end:
The message to Daniel
and the message to us is this:
“Go your way, and rest.
You shall rise for your reward at the end of days.”
Amen
Prayer:
O Lord God,
When the troubles we are facing seem fierce and our battles long,
Help us to hear that distant triumph song,
The song of the Apocalypse, the song of hope,
The song of the End, which makes our hearts brave and our arms strong.
Amen
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