The Lions of God

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00] How can Christians stay faithful to God in a culture that doesn't share our beliefs? The ancient Israelites faced the same question when they were exiles in Babylon. Written during that time, the Old Testament book of Daniel addresses the complexities of living faithfully in a pluralistic society. Today, Timothy Keller explores what it looks like to seek the good of the cities and communities God has placed us in, while remembering that our true home is in His coming kingdom.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01] Chapter 6 of Daniel, verses 1 to 10, and then the last part, 16 to 23, that gets it all for us. It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, and with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities,

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_01] that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said, we will never find any basis for charges against this man, Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_01] So the administrators and the satraps went as a group to the king and said, O King Darius, live forever. The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors, and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to you, O King, shall be thrown into the lion's den.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_01] Now, O King, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered in accordance with the laws of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be repealed. So King Darius put the decree in writing. Now, when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God just as he had done before. So the king had to give the order,

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_01] and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him, and he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn,

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_01] the king got up and hurried to the lion's den, and when he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions? Daniel answered, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight, nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king. The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den,

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_01] and when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. This is God's word. Now, we've been looking at Daniel for clues on how to live if you are a believer in only one true God in a society, which is pluralistic, committed to the principle that there are many gods, religions, moralities. And today we take a look at the most famous of all the narratives, and as I'll tell you near the end,

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01] it's actually a problem for understanding this. But what we see here is, I was impressed upon me as I studied this, that we have a concrete illustration of what Jesus Christ himself says will characterize the lives of believers in the world. There's three things that Jesus Christ talks about as being characteristic of our lives in the world. If you go to a very famous place in the Sermon on the Mount of chapter 5, verses 11 to 16, he says these three things.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01] He says, first of all, blessed are you when people persecute you falsely and say all kind of evil against you. And then he says, you are the light of the world, a city on a hill. And then he also says, you are the salt of the earth. Now, there's three things that Jesus says in the world you expect to be or experience, and that is salt hurt light.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01] Salt hurt light. And that's what we see here with Daniel. And we see three very important principles of how we are supposed to be living in the world as believers in the only true God. Now, first of all, the salt principle. And we see it. The salt principle, the very first principle of how to live in the world is you should be warned. The salt principle warns us against separation from the world, trying to stay away from the world, trying to pull ourselves out of the world.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_01] You are the salt of the earth, Jesus says. And you see it with Daniel. What do you see? Well, for example, first of all, as we have said before, and in some ways, it's good that this narrative almost summarizes everything we've seen all month. Daniel has got a job. He's high up. He's excelled in the pagan Babylonian government structure. And he's working with three kinds of qualities, you might say, three qualities. The first quality is he is incorruptible. See verse four? They found no corruption.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01] He was working in a very corrupt system with lots of kickbacks. He was incorruptible. Secondly, he was diligent. See? And also in verse four, he was not negligent. He was disciplined. He was conscientious. But you can be honest, A, and B, hardworking, and C, not be very effective. But we see, it says in verse three, he distinguished himself for his exceptional qualities. And you know, actually, that's a hard thing to translate because literally what it says

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01] is that Daniel had a spirit of excellence. It said he had an excellent spirit, a spirit of excellence. And so we see is Daniel had worked, he was incorruptible. He was hardworking and disciplined. Not only that, he was effective and exceptional. And what you actually have, though, the main thing you see here is we have a perfect illustration, a perfect case illustration of what Jeremiah told the Israelite exiles that they should do in Babylon. Do you remember from four weeks ago,

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_01] we said that when the Babylonian exiles, when the Israelites came to Babylon, the first thing that they did was they stayed out of the city. They didn't move into the city. And they began to form their own little enclave. And they said, we mustn't assimilate and lose our identity as the people of God. We must be separate. And they said, we were going to stay out here. We're going to form our own little world. We're going to have our own art world. We're going to have our own government. We're going to have our, in a sense, we're going to have our own scholarship. We're going to have our own education.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01] We're going to have our own world. And Jeremiah, in chapter 29, writes them and says, and this is a word from God, you must neither assimilate nor separate. And Jeremiah tells them three things and you see them all in Daniel right here. He says, move in and become deeply engaged with the cultural and economic and social life of the city. But secondly, keep your identity as my people. Don't assimilate but don't separate. And thirdly, work for the peace of the whole city. Work for the prosperity

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_01] and the peace of Babylon. And you see it. Take a look. First of all, he is deeply engaged. Oh my goodness. Here's a man who has excelled at the top in a pagan government structure, number one. Number two, but everybody knows what he stands for. Because, you see, the windows of where he prays open and every day, three times a day, people know that though he's in Babylon, he's looking toward the city of God. And number three,

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_01] verse two, the king does not suffer loss. In other words, Daniel is not working for his own advancement and for his own tribe's advancement but he's working for the peace of the city. He's working for the safety and the advancement of the culture in the city. And what does that mean? It means that he's a perfect example, a perfect example of what Jeremiah says and he's an example of what salt is. See, when Jesus says, you're salt of the earth, that is very evocative. Number one,

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01] salt gets out. Salt gets in. Salt is absolutely ineffective if it stays together. Salt gets out and gets in. It gets deeply involved, all right? And you see Jesus as salt. You see him touching, embracing, engaging, the marginal, the outsider, the foreigner, the leper. So Jesus is salt. But salt is not just, it doesn't just disperse. The purpose of salt in the ancient times

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01] was preservative. Today we use salt, of course, to flavor. That's not mainly the way they use salt. It's almost too valuable for that. You put salt in things that go bad. You put salt in things that fall apart so they don't fall apart. And what that means is that Christians are to be salt. It means we go places that would fall apart or places that would decay or go to disorder without us. Now, how do you do that? What does it mean to be salt of the earth? Perfect example of how things fall apart is something I just studied recently

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_01] was Genesis 11. The famous story of the Tower of Babel. And in the Tower of Babel you have a bunch of people that get together and they say, we're going to use our technology and we're going to do this architectural project. We're going to build a tower. Tower of Babel. But what's the purpose? Why are we doing it? Why are we working? And it says in verse 4 of chapter 11 of Genesis, let us make a name for ourselves. In other words, without God, human beings are self-namers.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_01] In other words, to get a name means to get uniqueness, to get significance, right? To get an identity. And we see that what you do in the Tower of Babel is a perfect example of it. You go to the city to get a name. You go to the city in order to, through your accomplishments and through your work, get a name. Get an idea of who you are. Find yourself. Know your uniqueness. Know your worth. Well, what happens to the Tower of Babel? It never finishes. And you know why? Well, the results are not surprising.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01] If the way you get a name for yourself, if the way you get an identity is by how high you go, that's the Tower of Babel metaphor. Let us make a name for ourselves because we're going to reach the heavens. If how high you go with money, how high you go with recognition, how high you go, you see, with accomplishment, if that's how you get a name, that's going to lead to breakdown. That's going to lead to exactly what happened at the Tower of Babel, which was nothing but conflict, contention, fighting. And if you are a self-namer,

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_01] if you move out into the world, if you move out into relationships, if you move out into work, if you move out into everything, looking to make a name for yourself, it leads to breakdown. It leads to breakdown on the inside. There's emptiness. There's ulcers, literal breakdown. There's tension. There's anxiety because I've got to prove myself. And there's breakdown on the outside. Races and classes and groups of people and individuals put one another down to assure themselves that they're all right, to assure themselves that they have a name, to assure themselves

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01] of who they are. Therefore, there's always breakdown in what are Christians. Why do Christians go out? Why are Christians supposed to go out into every world? Why are we supposed to go out into the business world, out into the art world, out into the scholarship? Why? Now, here's what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be going already having our name, having a name from God. God always names people in the Bible. Why? What's that mean? It shows that God is saying is what I have done in you and what I have done for you, my grace is your defining factor.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01] So when you move out into the world, you don't have to trample on people. You don't have to put them down. You don't have to be anxious. You don't have to burn out in your job. You don't have to do anything. You can live with poise. You can live with peace. You can live with love. You can deal with justice. Why? You already have a name. And so you move out into these places different, very different. You're salt. That's the vision. Ha ha. How easy. Isn't that easy?

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_01] No, of course it's not easy. And I know what you think and I know what I thought when I penned that. I said, hmm, is that how I move out into the world? Am I like that? But we can be like that. We have the resources for that. We have the call to do that. Salt. And that's the reason why we must be salt. Like Daniel was salt. Salt. Dispersing. Out into every world. Living with justice. Living with peace. Living with love. Living with compassion. Being salt. Now,

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_01] let me just apply this before we move on to the second point, the third point. Let me just, practical applications, let me just suggest a couple things. The salt principle is going to affect what we do in our work, where we do our work, and even how we do our work. And I don't have time for all that, but I'll try. I'll give you just an idea. First of all, what we do. One of the things the salt principle means is an incredible balance. This is going to cut both ways. Number one, it means that a church must never hint,

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_01] must never say, directly or indirectly, that if you're really, really, really spiritual, you'll be a missionary, you'll be in ministry, if you're really spiritual, if you're really still out for God, that's what you're going to do. Daniel had the gifts to be a full-time prophet. He could have been a Jeremiah. He could have been an Ezekiel. There they are, right? Isaiah. Look in the Bible. Open it up. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. These are people with gifts of revelation from God. Daniel had a gift of revelation from God.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_01] Daniel had all the gifts to be a full-time prophet, but he wasn't. He had a secular job. He expressed his commitment to the kingdom of God, and he helped open the world to the kingdom of God by not being in ministry. I mean, Daniel is a way of telling us, the church must never give people the impression that if you're not in full-time ministry, you're somehow, you know, second class and working for the kingdom. But, if you're the kind of, if you're a Christian

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_01] and you're the kind of person that can get into the very, very top graduate schools, and that means you can get into the very, very top kinds of jobs, and that means you know you could have a really top kind of status kind of life, and you know in this world ministry and missions is not that kind of life, you must be very, very, very careful that you're not really giving it a consideration. You see? If you're not a self-namer, if you're a Christian who's not trying to name yourself through your work, then you should, there's all kinds of very, very, very, very sharp people that should be thinking about ministry

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01] who are not. Why? Well, because it just doesn't have the status, doesn't have the payoff. On the other hand, you see, in other words, Christians ought to be thinking more about ministry and the church should be thinking less about saying to people, well, if you're really so effort for Jesus, you're going to be a teacher and a preacher and a small group leader and a missionary. You have to be very, very careful about that. Secondly, one more thing. It also has to do with where. The salt principle also has to do with where.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_01] Let me push this a little bit here. Salt was not used in ancient times in anything. You didn't put salt in food that was not going to go bad. There was no reason to put salt in food that was just going to be fine. Okay? You didn't put salt in potatoes, you know, hoping they wouldn't go bad. The potatoes were there. They sat there for a very long time. You put salt in meat. You put salt in things that would go bad. Where should Christians decide to live? Where should Christians decide to work? What does it mean to be salt? United States Christians

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_01] in particular look like everybody else in the world in that they want to choose places where nothing's falling apart. They want schools, they want to live in places where the schools are fine. They want to live in places where the streets are safe. They want to live in places where everybody looks like you and therefore there's no conflicts. They don't want to live in cities. They don't want to live in places and they say, well, why would you want to live there? Because you're salt. Because that's where salt goes. In a certain sense, you could say salt would be attracted. I mean, if you could mix

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_01] the metaphors here and personalize it, salt is attracted to places where things are falling apart. What if Jesus had decided to live in the most wholesome neighborhood he could have? He would have never come. And therefore, we have to think about the salt. Salt metaphor means it affects what we do, it affects how we do it, it affects where we do it. Now, secondly, on the one hand, the first principle is be salt. Don't be separate.

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_01] Don't pull yourself out. Don't pull your skirts up. Don't stay in your own little enclave. The next principle almost cuts against it. You know, the balance of the Bible is really very irritating sometimes. Because the very, very second, the second point is, on the one hand, in the salt principle, you're warned against separation. But in the hurt principle, you're warned against assimilation. You're warned against playing so nice and being so embracing and being so inoffensive

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_01] and being so loving that nobody knows that you're different. And the hurt principle is this, and we're going to see it in Daniel, and that her principle is that rejection of Christians by the world is to a great degree unavoidable and inevitable. Take a look at what happens here with Daniel. Now, Daniel is a perfect example of what we all know, and that is over the years there has been terrific tension, always tension, and often overt hostility between people inside the church

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01] and outside. Okay? For centuries there has been tension, at least tension, and very often overt hostility between people on the inside and on the outside of the church. And I have found as I read and listen to people giving explanations for it, that the explanations both of the insiders and of the outsiders I think tend to be simplistic and self-serving. Very often I hear people on the inside of the church say, well, the reason why there's all this tension is simply because we're being persecuted.

[00:18:47] [SPEAKER_01] We're like Daniel. We're incorruptible. You see, we're good and the world doesn't like to be exposed so the world just hates the fact that we're so good. Well, you know, most Christians aren't anything like Daniel. Most Christians aren't anywhere near that consistent and therefore I don't think that you can quite say a tribute to how exceptional Christians are to all the tension and conflict there's been between Christians and people inside the church,

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_01] people outside the church for so many years. Now, people outside the church, they give their own explanation and it very often goes like this. Christians tend to be hypocrites. They tend to be narrow-minded. You know, they're always putting people down. They're always oppressing people and that's the reason why there's so much tension between those inside the church and those outside the church. But, look, just like most, the vast majority of Christians are not Daniels. The vast majority of Christians are not Elmer Gantry's either. They're not hypocrites. In fact, you know, we have to be very careful. There is, in New York, there is a myth that when you think

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01] of Christianity, when you think of the church, you think of dead white males who are putting down everybody else. And we've got to get rid of that myth. You know, the majority of people in the world today who are Christians are in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The fact is that, and in emerging economies, the fact is that the majority of Christians have always tended to not be the people in power, to not be the people at the top. And I don't think we're going to be able

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_01] to be saying, well, you know, Christians tend to be the narrow-minded people at the top, putting the rest of us down. No. What we see here is something pretty interesting and a little bit frightening, I think. How does the hostility to Daniel grow? There's two triggers to it. Look carefully. The first trigger is verse 4. It says, At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel. Now, what's the at this? Well, the first thing that happened was the king was going to promote Daniel.

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_01] At this, they decided we have to do something. And the reason for that is pretty simple. You know, it's not that hard to imagine just plain old-fashioned professional jealousy. Here's three administrators and they're all equal and suddenly one is going to be put over the other two, which means two of the administrators are really going to get demoted and all the satraps under them are going to get demoted and it's perfectly natural in a way for them to do what they try to do. But look carefully. You'll see the first thing they try to do is they try to dig dirt. On Daniel. And it says

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_01] they tried to find grounds for charges in the conduct of his government affairs but they were unable to do so. Now, what that means is they must have thought he was like them. So, in the very beginning they were hostile. They said, let's dig up some dirt. Surely he is corrupt like we are. Surely he is negligent like we are. But they found he wasn't. See, originally they were hostile because they said he's like us and he's just getting ahead. But when they looked inside

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_01] they discovered that he was not like them at all. That he was just sterling in his qualities. No corruption. No negligence. Just an incredible, wonderful man. And what happened then? They got more resentful. They started scheming even more deeply. The more they saw he was different. The more this hostility which almost seems to be a bit irrational but it's not irrational and that's what I want to do. What I want to say and here's the principle that I think we get out of here. Do you understand this principle?

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01] The principle is that there is something about Christians from the perspective of the world that is irreducibly strange. It is irreducibly strange. It is unavoidable. We're irreducibly strange. We're unavoidably strange. And we're even understandably strange. That's what I want to get across for a couple minutes here. The world cannot understand Christians. And Christians should not be getting bent out of shape about that. It comes with a territory. And the ultimate reason and what I'm trying to say

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_01] is the ultimate reason for the conflict between the world and the church. The ultimate reason. Of course there's hypocrites. Of course. And of course there are people who are non-Christians who are just exposed by the goodness of some Christians. Of course. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is that Christians are inexplicable, unpredictable, and apparently arrogant. And the world have to see us that way. And Christians, we've got to get used to it and we've got to be so bent out of shape about it.

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_00] A lot of people think they know the Christmas story. Cultural references to the birth of Jesus are unavoidable this time of year. But how closely have you examined what really happened that first Christmas night? In his book, Hidden Christmas, Tim Keller takes you on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the Nativity story to help you better understand the redeeming power of God's grace. Hidden Christmas is our thanks this month for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the good news of Jesus with more people.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_00] Request your copy of Hidden Christmas today when you give at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the rest of today's teaching.

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_01] What do I mean? Well, let me give you an illustration. One of the problems is that when I get sick, if I really get sick, you know, usually once a year you come down with something and about a month and a half ago I got sick and I always read Lord of the Rings when I'm sick because I like it so much and it doesn't take any effort on my part. It just goes right on through and then I'm filled with illustrations for at least two months almost every March and April. But here's this one that is kind of unavoidable. Whether you know anything about it or not, here's how it goes. There's these two

[00:24:23] [SPEAKER_01] very pedestrian characters from a little, beautiful, quiet country called the Shire and they love their country. They love their people. It's very sweet and beautiful and quiet and unobtrusive and they love it. And at one point these two characters, well, there's actually four characters, they are taken out of the Shire and they're caught up into this adventure. And this adventure brings them into nightmarish conditions and they see awful things but they win through. And if they don't go through the adventure,

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_01] the Shire will be lost. But they win. They, you see, they triumph and the Shire is saved and they believe they're coming back to the land that they always loved and they're going to live there happily forever and they get back and something's happened. They did save the Shire and something happened and it's a paradox, a huge paradox and the paradox goes like this. On the one hand now they get back and they're leaders. Because of their adventures, because of their experiences, they find that stuff

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_01] that just overwhelms the inhabitants of the Shire is a snap for them. Stuff that just knocks everybody else over and just confuses people and scares people, no problem. And they found that their adventures have actually made them better for the Shire, more effective in the Shire, the leaders of the Shire and yet they've changed. They're strange. There's a bit of an alienation. The people who are there don't quite understand

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_01] why do they laugh so hard they didn't used to? Why do they weep so often they didn't used to? What are these weird songs? They sing songs all the time. And some of the songs we know but most of them we don't. They're weird now. They're strange now. Something has happened to them. And here's the answer. The answer is that on their adventures they've met a group, they've met some persons who come from a far land over the western seas. And what ends up happening

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01] is because of the relationships with those persons, those people, they're transformed. And when they get back to the Shire they find out that there's the very same, there's a very, the thing that's happened is the cause of both being more effective for the Shire and on the other hand now somewhat alienated from the Shire and that is the soil where the roots of their soul are planted has changed. The roots of their soul used to be in the Shire and it's over the ocean. It's over the sea.

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_01] They walk down to the sewers and they listen to the waves and they hear music and nobody else in the Shire can hear. What's that? Why do you want to be out there? See? What's happened is it's not their country anymore. That's why they're so effective in it and that's why they're so weird in it. See, the reason why they're so effective in it is this. Everybody else in the Shire if you look at a map all maps made in the Shire have nothing but white spaces on the outside. They don't know of anything else in the Shire. That's why they get so overthrown.

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01] You know what it's like? It's like a person who says the only wealth I have is my money. If my money's gone I have no wealth. The only beauty I have are my looks and when my physical looks are gone I have no more beauty. The only love I have are what my friends think about me. In other words this is all I've got and so if anything goes wrong inside the Shire everybody goes nuts because that's all they've got but these are people who have come back to the Shire and the roots of their soul are no longer there.

[00:27:50] [SPEAKER_01] They're a true country somewhere else and just as Daniel and we can see it in verse 9 Daniel is so effective in the city of Babylon because three times a day his heart yearns toward the city of God and these people are so effective in the Shire because they no longer belong there. Now that's exactly what Jesus means when he says to his apostles maybe it was a little bit of a surprise he says if you belong to the world it would love you as its own as it is you do not belong to the world

[00:28:19] [SPEAKER_01] for I have chosen you that is why the world hates you no servant is greater than his master. We're irreducibly strange to the world and let me give you one perfect example I could give you actually unfortunately in my little notes here I have about seven or eight sorry no time for them Christians find things bother Christians that people in the world think are fine and then other things Christians can take in stride

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_01] that people in the world get overwhelmed with there's a guy named Alexander McLaren an old Presbyterian minister once put it this way our jewels are the world's tinsel and what the world considers tinsel are our jewels difficult let me just give you a perfect example of this when the world thinks of religion what does the world think of? the world says okay I know what religion is in religion you meet God by trying your best to live a good life

[00:29:18] [SPEAKER_01] and be moral and do your religious duties and then you know you're right with God that's right that's what religion is but the world doesn't understand the difference between religion and the gospel and listen everybody the thing that takes you and changes you the thing that pulls the roots of your soul out of this world and puts it down into Jesus Christ is the moment you understand the difference between the gospel and religion for religion says I do all these good works

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_01] and then eventually God will bless me but the gospel is I believe in what Jesus Christ has done for me and I'm accepted now but now you see the world doesn't understand the difference between the religion and the gospel right? it couldn't how could it? if it did it wouldn't be the world and yet that means anytime a Christian ever says what is now the core thing in their being anytime a Christian says I know God I know He loves me I have eternal life

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_01] see I'm utterly accepted in Him right now the world has to consider that arrogant it has to it has to unavoidably understandably and not only that when a Christian says something that from the perspective of the gospel is utterly humble when a Christian says oh no no no no not just anybody can be good you have to believe in Jesus goodness isn't enough religion isn't enough you have to believe in Jesus what is obviously something that for us to say as Christians from inside the gospel takes an enormous amount of humility

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_01] in fact it takes the death of pride to say that from the outside the world has got to see that as nothing but arrogant it has to and therefore no matter how nicely you say it no matter how much you smile no matter how salty you try to be there's going to be hurt it means that people are inevitably they have to misunderstand us now don't forget now what do I let me apply this to three groups of people then move to the last point those of you who are compassionate

[00:31:18] [SPEAKER_01] a lot of you love the salt stuff a lot of you love to see Jesus Christ reaching out to people not offending people embracing people you know you love the salt you love what it means to get out there and engage but if you're never if you never offend anybody you're being too nice you're being too nice you're overdoing it Jesus says the world will hate you somewhere it's going to have to happen you're being a coward or something okay so for compassionate people recognize the fact that no matter how hard we try

[00:31:49] [SPEAKER_01] if you never are hurt if you're never turned upon if people never think you're arrogant it means you're being a coward probably or you're playing too nice on the other hand that's for you compassionate type so let me suggest to some of you who I guess maybe this I hope this isn't too negative a term some of you more militant type Christians I don't know if that's too negative I'm sorry but I have a critical thing to say to you right this minute there are lots of people in the church who right now are always talking about how we're getting persecuted in our society we're not able

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_01] to speak out people are not you know we're losing our freedom of religion there's a lot of talk about that and that's a big subject but here's what I want you to consider I don't want to talk about I don't want to get into questions of religious freedom and I am saying if there's injustice speak out for injustice but why should we ever get offended that the world doesn't understand us Jesus Christ says it comes with the territory you think you're above me or why

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_01] why get so indignant about the world misunderstanding of course they're going to misunderstand understand their misunderstanding they don't and I would say it's the essence of Christian maturity is to understand their misunderstanding and not totally avoid it if you avoid it if you try so hard to be salt that you never get hurt you're not following your Lord on the other hand if you're always getting bent out of shape you know if you're constantly sort of enjoying being persecuted

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_01] and then saying how awful is this and really being argumentative and speaking out and protesting and doing everything and say look at this look how awful the world is it's not being awful it's just being itself it doesn't understand the gospel that's why it's the world and if it doesn't until it understands the gospel it's not going to understand you and that's that now is that it I mean some of you are looking at your watch and saying I hope so is it two points wouldn't that be wonderful a two point sermon

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01] salt and hurt so those of you who tend to be compassionate be willing to speak up and recognize that you're going to take flack be willing to take flack and those of you who tend to be kind of militant and argumentative and kind of enjoy the conflict and then you're really bent out of shape when the world doesn't understand you come on come on be understanding be non-abrasive you know get out there as salt which is to be engaged be like Daniel let's close in prayer no why aren't we like Daniel

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_01] why aren't we doing this huh why are we sort of why are we so loving that we never offend anybody or why are we so offensive because we're not loving anybody why why aren't we like Daniel why can't we keep truth and love together well I think it's because we don't understand what Daniel's really this whole story is really about one of the things that's so bad about this story is it's famous and I want you I'm going to say something it sounded a lot outrageous but I thought about it at least at least a hundred times so before I said it there's a lot of people

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_01] in this room who are either weak Christians or not Christians at all because of this story because of the way you heard it because of the way it was taught to you in church or Sunday school because here's how in thousands and hundreds of thousands of little lessons and bible studies over the years what have people said they've said look at this story isn't this exciting God shut the mouths of the lions and therefore the moral of the story is if you are good and you trust God God will take care of you too

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_01] so be courageous because God will take care of you that's the moral of the story and if that's how you read it no wonder a lot of you aren't Christians today that just doesn't work the moral of the story if that's what this is here for if the writer put this story in the Bible so that you would know that if you are innocent and you are good and you trust God not a scratch nothing bad will ever happen to you no wonder a lot of you

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_01] aren't Christians today but that's not what Christianity teaches that might be what you heard but it's not and obviously it doesn't work no wonder you're so unhappy no wonder you've been so dashed no wonder you've been so disillusioned but it's not Christianity it is not the life and message of Jesus in fact if that's how you read that if the moral of the story is the way you read the event and if the moral of the story is if you really trust God will never let anything bad happen to you I know somebody who was more innocent than Daniel I know somebody

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01] who trusted God a whole lot more than Daniel did I know somebody who also was thrown into a den I know somebody else who also had the stone rolled over him and I also know that he was filled with wounds there were all kinds of scratches on him there were all kinds of terrible things that happened to him see the gospel my goodness the moral of the story approach this this account not only contradicts the life of Jesus it contradicts the message of Jesus because the message of Jesus is it's not the good people

[00:36:47] [SPEAKER_01] he even says he says I'm a physician I have come not for the righteous but for sinners I'm a physician who is a physician a physician is somebody you go to when you don't believe you can do self-maintenance anymore on your health and you know it's over your head and Jesus Christ said I have not come for good people I haven't come for people who think they're innocent and are trusting God I've only come for people who know they're not so it contradicts everything well you say well then what is this here for why was this put here

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_01] for two reasons this narrative was put here for two reasons first of all to point to the salvation that we've got waiting for us in the future and to point to the salvation that has already been done for us in the past first of all the salvation of the future don't we do you remember this from last year the miracles in the Bible are never naked displays of power do you ever see the apostles or prophets saying oh you want to you want to see something and you know watch that volcano watch that mountain I'm going to make it erupt look at that

[00:37:47] [SPEAKER_01] that's power I mean that is power if you were just going to try to display naked power there's certainly better ways of doing it don't you think than feeding the hungry and touching lepers healing lepers and healing blind people don't you think so I mean after all you know I mean to make to make a a mountain erupt is considerably more convincing I think than you know to touch a man and you know and his eyes and you know the skeptic says well maybe that was

[00:38:16] [SPEAKER_01] just psychosomatic I mean the miracles the miracles in the Bible don't really they're not very good as naked displays of power because they're not the miracles of the Bible are to show us the salvation they're supposed to show us the gospel in other words when we the miracles of the Bible when the hungry are fed when the lepers are cleansed when the blind see those are not ultimately not primarily suspensions of the natural order they're restorations of the natural order

[00:38:46] [SPEAKER_01] in the miracles God is showing us what he wants the world to be like what he originally wanted the world to be like and what he's going to make the world like again and when you see Daniel an 80 year old man by the way you think of Daniel here as a strapping oh no oh no God works through the weak to shame the strong God works through the foolish to shame the wise 80 year old Daniel walking with the lions petting them

[00:39:15] [SPEAKER_01] their mouths shut what are we being told about we're being told about a day that God is going to bring us this Isaiah chapter 6 11 verses 6 and 7 the wolf will live with the lamb the leopard will lie down with the goat the calf and the lion and the yearling will be together and a little child shall lead them all lions roaring lions in the book of Psalms in Psalm 7 in Psalm 10 and Psalm 57 over and over and over again roaring lions is a symbol of the disharmony

[00:39:45] [SPEAKER_01] of nature it's nature red in tooth and claw it's sufferings and danger Isaiah 11 says someday however God's going to wipe this place clean and the universe will be restored and there will be nothing but harmony there will be nothing but peace and our bodies will work right and nature will work right and there won't be disease and there won't be death those of you whose bodies don't work right or maybe you've gotten some bad news from the doctor the first thing that Daniel's

[00:40:15] [SPEAKER_01] pointing to the first thing he's pointing to is the new heavens and new earth and the city of God is a foretaste of the kingdom of God well you say well that's very nice but why and the answer is how can we know that this is going to come to us how could that be of any help to us how could that be of any benefit to us only because it also this miracle doesn't just teach us about the salvation of the future but the salvation that has happened for us in the past because what does he say to the king the king says oh my goodness how did this happen and what does he say to the king

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_01] he says an angel no he doesn't say an angel pardon me he says oh God oh king live forever my God sent his angel remember Shadrach Meshach and Abednego into the furnace now into the lion's den who is this guy Nebuchadnezzar saw him and he said he looks like a son of God and the weird thing about this angel is he does not deliver outside of the furnace he doesn't deliver

[00:41:14] [SPEAKER_01] outside of the den he could why doesn't he if he's going to deliver Shadrach Meshach and Abednego if he's going to deliver Daniel why not just strike the guards dead huh why not just you know why not just create an avalanche and cover up the den why does he always go in who is this guy and I'll tell you who I think I believe it literally is but even if you don't believe it literally is and there's some commentators who don't that I trust a great deal he points to somebody this guy points to somebody who does he point to

[00:41:44] [SPEAKER_01] there is somebody else we already referred to him who was also thrown into a tomb and sealed over with a rock and who also came out but why here's why the Bible tells us in Psalm 22 what the Messiah is going to say from the cross my God my God why hast thou forsaken me all who see me mock me they hurl insults saying he trusts in the Lord but the Lord will not rescue him roaring lions open their mouths wide against me you lay me

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_01] in the dust of death and roaring lions does not just represent in general suffering but in the Old Testament the roaring lion represents the justice of God in the book of Amos in the very beginning it says the Lord roars against violence and against oppression and this is what it means the real Daniel who went into the real lion's den and who went before the real lions the justice of God who got the punishment

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_01] that only only that we all we all needed he he was he was ruined he was torn by the justice of God the real Daniel who went into the real lion's den was Jesus Christ and because he was the ultimate Daniel who went before the ultimate lions we now we now can go into the little lion dens of our lives with confidence why? here's the reason why I want to speak for you for myself I can only deal with disease

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_01] if I know that the ultimate disease sin and death has been dealt with by him in the ultimate lion's den I can only deal with my debts or financial problems if I have any because I know the ultimate debt's been paid I can only deal with loneliness how am I going to deal with loneliness? I can only deal with loneliness if I know that he went into the ultimate den he was thrown away from God and I will never be thrown away from God because he was thrown away because he was cut off because he was thrown in that ultimate lion's den I'm never going to

[00:43:42] [SPEAKER_01] experience anything like that and therefore I can truly be Daniel you know what Daniel means? the word Daniel means Daniel my judge is God God is my judge I don't care what you think I don't care what anybody thinks well may the accuser roar of things that I have done I know them all and thousands more Jehovah knoweth none see in other words do you believe that the ultimate Daniel

[00:44:11] [SPEAKER_01] went into the ultimate lion's den for you? do you believe that Jesus Christ went and took your punishment so that now you really are innocent in God's sight? if that's true you can deal you're not going to be driven to the top because you know who you are and you're not going to ever be down at the bottom thinking what a failure well may the accuser roar see of sins that I have done I know them all and thousands more Jehovah knoweth none roar all you want lions the only lions that can really kill me Jesus Christ took you'll never be able

[00:44:41] [SPEAKER_01] to get out into the lion dens of this world unless you realize what the ultimate Daniel did for you do you understand that? so here in the end do you believe it? can you live like that? if so you will be light you will be attractive the thing that's so interesting is the satraps and the administrators hated him but Darius loved him why is Darius so upset? he says may your God whom you serve continually rescue you and he couldn't sleep that night and he came up Daniel serve the living God has your God whom you serve

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER_01] he was already in love with Daniel why was he in love with Daniel? because Daniel was light he wasn't just salt he was light he was attractive he was beautiful in the way he lived and here's how you know you're following in the footsteps of Daniel and in the footsteps of the greater Daniel some people will really be mad at you and other people will be falling in love with you and your God for most of us nobody's mad at us for Jesus and nobody's attracted either

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_01] C.S. Lewis one place very happily says you'll never tame the lions of your life until you let God be the untamed lion in your life in other words unless you fear God unless you know what he's done unless you're in awe about what he's done for you you're going to be afraid of a lot of other things but if you're in awe about what he has done for you then you'll walk into every other lion's den and you'll say Daniel God is my judge this is a small thing because of what

[00:46:10] [SPEAKER_01] Jesus Christ has done for me fear God and fear nothing else let's pray we ask that you would help us be salt accept the hurt and because we know what your son Jesus Christ did for us on the cross be attractive beautiful light for the whole world we ask that you would show us how we can realize that in our own lives and we ask it in Jesus

[00:46:33] [SPEAKER_00] thanks for joining us here on the gospel and life podcast if you are encouraged by today's teaching you can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it and to find more great gospel centered content by Tim Keller anytime visit gospelandlife.com today's sermon was recorded in 2000 the sermons and talks you hear on the gospel and life podcast were recorded

[00:47:02] [SPEAKER_00] between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church and we'll see you next week