10/29 Sermon - My God Will Rescue Me

My God Will Rescue Me
Daniel 6:1-23

Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517. In the 95 theses, he called out the entire Roman Catholic Church for corruption, greed, and false doctrine. The RCC controlled or influenced most of Europe, and they did not like Martin Luther. Martin Luther brought the full wrath of the RCC down on his head. For the rest of his life, he was pretty much confined or trapped in one city. Martin Luther didn’t care. He trusted in God alone. His one thought was this: My God will rescue me.

- Daniel found himself in a similar situation. The entire Persian government wanted to kill him. But he didn’t care. His one thought was this: My God will rescue me.

Let’s tell the story. Daniel, a young, Jewish man who worked for the Persian government, flourished at his job. So the king planned to give Daniel one of the highest positions in the government.

- As is often the case, jealousy burned in the hearts of his fellow workers, and they tried their hardest to get him fired. But they couldn’t. Daniel was trustworthy and reliable.

- But they noticed, “Daniel follows the Word of God. If we make a law that forces him to blaspheme or deny his God, then we can get him.” So, they did. They tricked the king, who loved Daniel, to pass a law: Anyone who worshipped or prayed to anything else besides the king of Persia was to be thrown into a Lion’s Den.

- Daniel heard the decree, but he didn’t care. He went up to his window, opened it wide, and prayed to his God.

- The officials freaked out and told the king. He loved Daniel, but was powerless to stop the law he had made. The king was worried, stressed. In one last pathetic attempt, said to Daniel, “May your God rescue you, if he can,” and he threw Daniel into the den of hungry lions, put a stone over the top, and went back for a sleepless night.

- In the morning, every expected to find just bits and pieces of Daniel left over. The king opened the pit, leaned over, and there was Daniel, alive and unscathed. Daniel called up to the king, “ My God sent angels to shut the Lions’ mouths. My God rescued me:

I want to explore two interesting details in this story.

1. The is a funny story about God Almighty and King Darius. King Darius passed a law that he alone was God. He wants to be worshipped as God. But he’s tricked. He’s not even powerful enough to overrule his own law. He spends the night worrying, he can’t sleep, because his own power isn’t sufficient. He can’t save Daniel. He says, “I hope your God is strong enough.” And he is. God rescued Daniel.

2. Daniel trusted in God alone. He didn’t pray to Darius. He didn’t worship the king. He knew Darius and the Persian government had no real power. Daniel trust God, even if it meant a horrible death. He confessed, “God will rescue me.”

Where is our confidence? Where is our trust? Like King Darius, we think it’s all in our hands. Our confidence is in ourselves. We’re not humble before God. We don’t give him glory and honor and praise. We want the glory, so we try to solve our problems.

- That works for a little while. It can. We can solve some problems on our own.

- Soon enough, God shows us how weak we really are. He sends us problems that we can’t solve. Problems that don’t go away. Problems that cause us to stay up, lose sleep, and worry.

- At best, we have the wishful thinking Darius had, “I sure hope God can maybe, perhaps, in some off chance, help me. But who knows?”

- As a result, it’s hard to boldly live for God as Daniel did. When any kind of persecution or pushback for our faith comes along, we freeze and stop.

- This is the main problem: We’re not sure if God can rescue us.

Who is more powerful? Option 1: Darius? The Persian Government? Laws and Rules? Lions? Option 2: God Almighty? God. Daniel, who trusted in God almighty.

- That’s the point of the story. God rescued Daniel from the lions. He shut the mouth of the lion. God is powerful where Darius was weak. God rescued where Darius failed.  

- No matter what persecution Daniel faced from the Persian government, what attacks he suffered from the corrupt officials, what danger or death the lions gave him, Daniel’s one confession was this: My God will rescue me.

We can say, along with Daniel, my God will rescue me. God does that for us in a much more wonderful way. Our God rescues us, not from the mouths of lions, but from sin and death itself.

- Daniel said, “I was found innocent in his sight,” and we can confess that too. We are innocent in God’s eyes through Jesus Christ. He trust in God every day, perfect, in our place. He shed his blood to take away our sins of pride, and worry, and doubt. His perfect life covers our sinful lives. Though faith in Jesus we can confess, “I am innocent before God. Jesus rescued me.”

- Daniel escaped death because God closed the mouth of the lions. We don’t even need to escape death! Because Jesus rose from death and destroyed the grace. Jesus lives, and that means we will live too. Our lives our joined with his though baptism. Death isn’t death for us; it’s just a sleep. It’s not a defeat, it’s a victory. It’s not the end of life, but the beginning of eternity paradise. It’s not the gateway to hell, but the gates of heaven itself.

- In a sense, Daniel’s lion pit is a picture of Jesus’ tomb. Let me lay out the comparisons.

Daniel 6:17a, Matthew 27:60 – A stone was placed over both.

Dan. 6:17b, Matt. 27:65 – Guards and rings sealed both shut.

Dan. 6:19, Matt 28:1 – Someone came to check at dawn.

Dan. 6:22, Matt. 28:2 – God sent an angel to both. 

The king still had to lift Daniel out of the pit, though. This was a foreshadow. The reality is found in Christ. He left the tomb on his own power. It’s proof that our true king would live forever and rule his people with forgiveness, truth, power, and love.

- In Jesus, through faith in his name, we can confess with Daniel, “My God will rescue me.”  

The truth in this gospel story, God is our strength and help, our God rescues us, is such a comfort. It changes our lives. Let me explain.  

1. Realize how powerless we are. So many things in our lives make us lose sleep at night. We can’t sleep. But all that worry doesn’t change a single thing, does it? We can’t do much to solve the big problems in our lives.

- Daniel had reason to worry. If he prayed to God, he’d be thrown in the lion’s den. Even the king couldn’t change that law. But he left it in God’s hands.

- We also leave everything in God’s hands. Problems with money? Health? Family? Lions? Our God, who rescued us from sin and death, who promises us eternal life, who has power to shut the mouths of lions, will rescue us from whatever problems we face, in his own time and way.

- Further down in Daniel 6, King Darius seems to confess his faith in the living God, I think. In any case, the faith and knowledge of the true God was preserved in Persia all the way down to the Wise Men who visited baby Jesus. We never know what God’s plans are. He will rescue us and bring us to heaven.

2. Realize the power of prayer. When Daniel had his back against the wall, when certain death was inevitable, when his enemies gathered around him, what did he do? He prayed. God rescued him.

- Let’s follow that example. When we face problems we don’t know the answer to, when we are at our wit’s end, when we don’t know the way forward, let’s pray. God won’t give the answer we’re looking for, but he’ll always give the answer that we need, he will rescue us.

3. Walk in God’s Word. Daniel didn’t care what the consequences were. He followed his God and loved his Word.

- There are so many negative consequences for following God’s Word in our culture. So many temptations seek to tear us away from God’s Word and his forgiveness. We walk in God’s Word, because through that Word our God will rescue us.

What did Martin Luther do? He brought the full wrath of the European church and government down on his head. They persecuted him his whole life. But Martin Luther simply trusted God, prayed, and walked in God’s Word. He knew his God would rescue him. 

- What did Daniel do? He was threatened with death and thrown into the Lion’s den. But he simply trusted God, prayed, and walked in God’s Word. He knew his God would rescue him.

- What do we do? So much persecution happens all over this world. Our lives our full of sin, pain, problems. We lose sleep and worry. What are we to do? It’s simple. Our God will rescue us. So we trust in his power, pray to him alone, and walk in his word, for our God will rescue us.