A Crisis of Love

Good morning, church. It is good to be here with you and to share a word with you this morning.

We are continuing with our Beautiful God series, where we are seeing God through the windows of Adventism. We’re in the middle-to-tail end of the series now. We’ve looked at creation, Sabbath, sanctuary and Trinity, and today we’re looking at crisis. A lot of people have been messaging me, “What’s crisis about? Give me a bit more.” We’re going to look at a crisis of love that has played out over a long period of time and has played itself out on Earth, through a scripture that really fleshes it out.

I want to remind us what we’re looking for through these windows. We’re looking at these doctrines as part of the story, the meta-narrative or the bigger picture at play. We’re seeing them not as isolated ideas but as key theological principles that run across the story of Scripture. We can’t take the gospel away from any of them, so we’ll see the gospel in everything we talk about. And we’re seeing that God is fundamentally a God of love.

Today we’re looking at a prophecy, a vision, in Daniel 7. Some of you will be familiar with it and some of you won’t. When I was a kid I sometimes went to prophecy seminars, and I’d see a giant chart at the front with lions, bears, leopards and all sorts of beasts. It scared me, and it gave me the odd nightmare. Some of you may have had experiences like that. Some of you have very fond memories of what we’re about to look at.

What I want us to see today is that prophecy is a window into God being a beautiful God, a God of love. So here we are: a crisis of love. A clash between two kingdoms. One built on power over people, and one built on the love that gives itself away.

A quick disclaimer. This is a 25-minute sermon, not an hour-long Bible study, so I can’t get into every detail. You’re probably going to tell me afterwards, “You could have gone into this detail, or that detail.” I’m trying to capture the whole big picture, and hopefully we can do that today.

Let’s pray before we start.

Father in heaven, I thank you that you are a good God. I thank you that your kingdom is like no other. I thank you that you are the Ancient of Days, who knows no end. And I thank you that you are with us in this small moment right now. May your word come alive. May we see you revealed through your word today. Open our hearts so that we don’t just absorb knowledge, but there’s a transformation of our hearts, so that we can go out and be better disciples who model your love to a world that needs it so much. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Four beasts from the sea

Daniel 7, verses 1 to 3:

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea. Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.”

— Daniel 7:1–3

This is later in Daniel’s life. In his early days as a young person, he experienced a dream that the king of Babylon had: a statue, and four different kingdoms represented by four different metals. Here, later on, it’s almost a repetition of the same dream. It’s as if Daniel is being reminded of the things of his youth.

The four winds stir up the waters and churn up the great sea. The four winds represent war and turmoil rising from every part of the earth, and the sea represents a multitude of people. It’s a picture of nations going to war against nations. There’s a conflict. There’s a crisis at play.

When I read this, the waters remind me of something very early in Scripture. A lot of Scripture draws us back to something earlier. Here I’m drawn back to Genesis 1, where in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and empty, and the Spirit was hovering over the waters. And here there are waters, and beasts coming out of them. But these beasts aren’t like the ones God created. They’re mutated, hybrid beasts. It’s almost as if God is portraying that creation has gone wrong. Creation has been twisted. It’s an upside-down, inverted version of Genesis 1.

The text continues:

The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it.

And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, “Get up and eat your fill of flesh!”

After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.

After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.

While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

— Daniel 7:4–8

Four beasts, representing four empires, the same ones from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. We don’t have time to go into Daniel 2 today, but I’d encourage you to look at it, because it helps clarify who these beasts are.

The first is a lion with eagle’s wings. That one is pretty straightforward, because archaeologists have found that Babylon was depicted as a winged lion. It was almost like a mascot. They dig things up and find these winged lions.

Then we have Medo-Persia, the bear raised up on one side. It has three ribs in its mouth, likely because it conquered three nations. It’s lopsided because of the power imbalance between the Persians and the Medes, with the Persians often having the upper hand.

Then the leopard with four heads, representing Greece. The wings represent the speed with which Alexander conquered the world. The four heads point to his four generals, each with their own power, and his divided empire.

Then, following the historical timeline, we meet the fourth beast. After Greece comes Rome: the dreadful one with iron teeth and ten horns.

Notice that the vision skims over the first three beasts. It isn’t really interested in them. It zooms in on the fourth. And Daniel is very curious about it, so he asks:

Then I wanted to know the meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others and most terrifying, with its iron teeth and bronze claws—the beast that crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and about the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn that looked more imposing than the others and that had eyes and a mouth that spoke boastfully. As I watched, this horn was waging war against the holy people and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy people of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom.

He gave me this explanation: “The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.

“But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.”

This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself.

— Daniel 7:19–28 (selected)

Understandably, he’s feeling pale. He’s feeling sick after hearing all of this. And it’s remarkable that the Bible foresees this hundreds of years before any of it happens.

The little horn

According to this vision, the fourth beast, the Roman Empire, would divide into ten kingdoms. Out of that division comes another king, another horn, and it uproots three of those ten. It wages a war, and not just any kind of war. It’s a religious war against God, by spreading lies about God’s character and who he is. It silences anyone who opposes it, and it rises to great heights of religious and political control. Those are the characteristics of this horn that comes out of the fourth beast.

When we look through history, we see that Rome has two lives. First there’s imperial Rome. It’s strong, it conquers, it’s harsh. It has iron teeth and eats up anything in its way. Then Rome splinters under the barbarian tribes, and the power of Rome changes into something else. That’s when we enter the age of papal Rome. Rome shifts from a secular power to a religious power, but it’s still the same beast.

It’s a difficult truth, but there is only one power in history that rises out of the Roman Empire and fits this description, and that is the Christian church in the form of papal Rome. This is something the Reformers believed strongly. You can imagine it gave them a fair bit of encouragement as they tried to bring about a spiritual reformation and recover the purity of what Christianity was supposed to be. Martin Luther believed this as he stood against this great religious empire. He said something like, “Unless they abandon their laws and restore to Christ’s churches their liberty, they are guilty of all the souls that perish under this captivity. And the papacy is, of a truth, the kingdom of Babylon, yes, of the very Antichrist.”

So here we see a system of power with a dark past of oppression and coercion. I’m talking about the system, not the individual people within it, many of whom love Jesus very deeply. But every empire of this world is built on the impulse of power and coercion. Even Christianity, which started off pure, Christlike and loving so well, fell into compromise, lost its other-centred love, and in many ways became like the beast, and in some ways worse. Conquering by imperial force is bad enough. Conquering by imperial force while reaching for religious authority is even worse. A church that began pure and holy slid into compromise, fought wars in the name of Christ and killed countless people, more than even some of the modern wars we have today.

And this lasted a long time. The text says “a time, times and half a time.” When we look at biblical prophecy and the day-for-year principle, which is a historicist way of interpreting prophecy that I won’t go into now for the sake of time, a time, times and half a time represents 1,260 years. Historically that runs from AD 538, when most acknowledge this power began its reign, to 1798, when Napoleon captured the pope. That’s 1,260 years.

For hundreds of years, God’s character was defamed. The church that was meant to be the bride of Christ took on the instincts of every other beast. Humanity was meant to rule over the beasts, but when we puff ourselves up in pride and exalt ourselves, we sink even lower than the beasts. The text shows us that not everything that claims to be of God is necessarily of him. And I think that’s the way the enemy works most powerfully.

A crisis from the inside out

I have an illustration. I’m a Manchester United supporter, a proud one. Growing up I watched this club in its glory days, winning the biggest trophies, the Champions League, the Premier League. Nothing could stop my team, and that wasn’t because the opposition wasn’t good. It was because Manchester United was so good.

Over the years I’ve watched my team descend into deep darkness. Slowly but surely I’ve seen this cancer run from the top of the club to the bottom. Players turning on their manager, fans protesting against their owners, tension in the dressing room. It’s a crisis, and it’s a crisis not from the outside in, but from the inside out. Man United didn’t fall because of who they played against or because the opposition got better. They fell because of what was happening on the inside.

That’s the best way to bring down a kingdom, from the inside out. There are two ways to do it. You can attack a kingdom from the outside, which the enemy tried in the early years of the church through violent persecution of the early Christians. But the church only multiplied and grew. So the tactic changed. Maybe, from the inside, we could let compromise creep in. Let the love of the church grow cold. Let it lose its core gospel until it becomes the very thing it swore it wouldn’t become.

If the enemy wanted to be most effective, I think he’d work from the inside. He’d lull the church into a lust for power disguised as religion. That compromise would look holy and look like God, but it would be as far from his heart as you could get. It would lead to the destruction of many, not just physically but also in the destruction of the picture of God in so many people’s minds.

Centuries before the church even existed, God revealed how far it would fall. The war between good and evil plays out in the most unexpected place: in the church. It’s easy to look around, point at other churches and institutions, and say, “Watch out for the beast over there.” But if we’re honest, I think there can be a bit of that beast in us.

The beast in miniature

Sometimes it’s easy to treat all this as something huge and cosmic and beyond us, and in doing so we miss how it plays out in the small, ordinary moments of our lives. Every day we face choices where we can respond selfishly or respond in love.

Maybe it’s the argument at home where you’d rather win than understand. Maybe it’s the text message you’ve just rolled up to send because you want to exert your power and influence over someone with something nasty. Maybe it’s a meeting where you push your agenda in a way that isn’t Christlike. Maybe it’s how we try to put people in their place. Or maybe it’s when we use our faith as a weapon, even quoting Scripture to win a fight, to get our agenda across, or to feel superior to people who don’t do it the way we do.

I think that is the beast in miniature: religion fused with power. Part of us wants to push our agenda through force, and part of us misrepresents the character of God in the way we live. That’s why the beast can be so influential. It isn’t confined to an institution or an empire. It plays out in the everyday, ordinary moments of our lives too. Hearts influenced by that power build big, puffed-up empires, grabbing for power at the cost of the humble way of Jesus.

The courtroom and the Son of Man

That’s why God takes his kingdom back in a different way from all other empires. Right in the middle of Daniel 7 is the most important part. Sandwiched between the vision and the interpretation of the vision is this text, which we cannot miss:

As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

— Daniel 7:9–14

We see this transcendent, otherworldly picture of a heavenly courtroom, a heavenly kingdom. It’s beyond anything we can conceive, a divine manifestation of God. Then we see a shift. We see a human manifestation of the divine. One like a son of man comes on the clouds of heaven. This one who is like the Son of Man has won the victory, and his kingdom is unlike any other.

Notice the contrast. Four beasts rise out of the chaotic sea, and then there’s one who comes who is like a son of man, a true human. Back in Genesis 1, humanity was made to rule over the beasts. And Jesus is finally the one who is able to do that. Jesus is finally the one who can rule over the beast righteously. Where Adam failed, Jesus did not.

Jesus is the Son of Man who comes and wins the victory not by dominating but by serving. He strips off all his authority and sovereignty, lowers himself, and shows what the kingdom of God is all about. He claims the title Son of Man in his ministry. Mark 10:45 is just one example:

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

— Mark 10:45

In every superhero film, the hero wins by overpowering the enemy. Power over defeats evil. The strongest power wins the battle. But Jesus is a different kind of superhero, because his story is unlike any other. Instead of power over his enemies, he uses power under. He builds his kingdom by giving up power rather than exerting it. He defeats evil through love and sacrifice rather than through force and coercion. This vision shows us that the kingdom of God is like no other.

Where do we put our trust?

So how do we respond? Many of us crave a utopia. We crave a world that is made right, a world that is just and fair. But the truth is that the utopia we crave cannot exist through the human systems and ideologies we put our trust in, because the problem isn’t with the system. The problem is with the human heart. Unless the human heart is changed to look like Jesus, the utopia you crave cannot exist.

Even religions, institutions and denominations can’t hold our trust, because the kingdom of God exceeds all of them. It runs deeper. It’s spiritual, not merely physical.

Daniel 7 doesn’t end with the beast. It ends with a courtroom: the court sitting, the books open, and the kingdom handed to the Son of Man and his people. The story picks up again at the very end of the Bible, in Revelation 14, where three angels fly through heaven with the final message for the whole world. This has shaped the mission and calling of Adventists.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

— Revelation 14:6–8 (selected)

Then it goes on to describe the fate of the beast and those who worship it. There’s the judgment from Daniel 7: “The hour has come.” Then there’s Babylon, the first beast Daniel saw, now named as the system that grabs power and tries to save itself. The third angel warns the world not to worship the beast. And in the middle of it all, John sees a people who stand firm, the patient endurance of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

Some of us have heard this text many times, and for some of you it’s new. Either way, I love how Ty Gibson captures it in a nutshell. The first angel is the good news of salvation by grace, which rises. The second angel is the bad news of salvation by works, which falls. And in the third angel, the human race is divided into haters and lovers, forcers and liberators, persecutors and persecuted. And love wins in the end.

That’s the three angels’ message at its heart. It isn’t a message of fear. It’s an announcement that the kingdom of power, the empire built on self, is falling, and the kingdom of love is rising.

A remnant of love

So in this crisis of love, we are called to be people who remain, a remnant left standing. We refuse to give in to the beastly impulse of self, and we choose to live counterculturally, by a different economy and a different operating system. That is the call we have been given: to not put our trust in systems that claim to be the solution. Any system that isn’t the kingdom of Jesus will fall. But the kingdom of Jesus will rise, and it will last forever.

Maybe you’ve had an image of God that has been tainted by bad religion. I want to tell you today, I’m sorry. But the good news is that Jesus has shown that his kingdom is not like that. It isn’t like those empires of power, even the ones that have claimed the name of Christianity. The kingdom of Jesus is different. And we are called to stand in the midst of that as faithful people, people who love really, really well. That’s the call: to hold to the gospel, to be people who love, and to share that gospel story with the whole world.

Can I invite you to stand and sing?

We stood and sang “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise.”

Prayer

Father in heaven, you are the Ancient of Days. I thank you that your kingdom is the one that reigns in the end. Lord, you’re the one who deserves all the glory. Every empire must bow at the name of Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, Son of Man, the one who gave up his life, who descended to the lowest parts of the earth, showing that you only use power in acts of self-giving love. And God, you did that for us so that we can do that for other people as well. Lord, may we see that kingdom become a reality not just in the future but also here and now, in the way we go about our ordinary lives, so that we can represent you well. Represent you as people of love, who have the love of Jesus overflowing in our hearts. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.