Living Water Community Church

We worked through chapter 3 and in it we really get a view into the second major time God confronts Nebuchadnezzar. The first time God confronted Nebuchadnezzar was with the recurring dream. The dream he demanded his wise men tell him along with its meaning. God uses Daniel to convey the dream and its meaning but also Daniel points out to Nebuchadnezzar how God is the source of the dream and its interpretation. This made it clear to Nebuchadnezzar where the source really was. The second time was in Daniel three when Nebuchadnezzar demanded his leaders from all over his kingdom come and bow down before the statue he has constructed. We are not entirely sure what drove this demand. The Bible does not record for us the motivating factors but there is a historic record of a rebellion in the kingdom of Babylon about the tenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. If this was the motivation behind this then it was a test of loyalty. Failure to comply was a sign of disloyalty and explains the extreme consequences for not following orders. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not bow down to the statue. Their failure was reported and they were brought before the king who was angry at their disobedience to his command. Nebuchadnezzar was willing to give them another chance to bow down when the music played but they quite firmly affirmed how no matter what the king wanted they would not bow to the image the king had constructed. They also made it clear this was out of loyalty to their God Yahweh and they were willing to face the death sentence rather than bow down. This made the king furious and he ordered the furnace made as hot as it could possibly be made. This furnace was probably a large brick kiln used for firing bricks to make the walls of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told the king their God was capable of delivering them from death but even if He did not they would not bow to his image. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered two of his soldiers to bind them and throw them into the furnace. The furnace was so hot the men throwing in the three Hebrew men died. To Nebuchadnezzar’s surprise the three Hebrews survived and appeared to be walking around in the flames with a fourth man who appeared to Nebuchadnezzar to be like a son of the gods. This is most likely a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. Since they did not die Nebuchadnezzar went near to the furnace and called out to them to come out. Upon exiting the furnace, the king and his counselors witnessed how their was no evidence of fire exposure on them or their clothing in any way. The king then blesses the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for the miraculous delivery of His loyal servants who would rather face death then worship any god but Him. This resulted in the king issuing a decree of retribution against anyone who says anything against Yahweh. The king also promoted the three young men. This story is not really about the young Hebrews but rather about God who is powerful and able to save. This is the God we serve and He can and does rescue all who follow Him from eternal death and damnation. This is who our hope is in. This is the God who is confronting the ruler of the world at this point in time. 

We worked through the end of chapter 2. Here we witnessed Daniel going before Nebuchadnezzar with his dream and its interpretation. Daniel makes it clear to Nebuchadnezzar how it is impossible for men to know what he dreamed, but God in heaven knows all things and He gave Nebuchadnezzar this dream to reveal to him what is coming. Daniel then tells him he dreamed of a massive statue with a head of gold, chest of silver, waist of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. A stone is cut without hands and strikes the feet of the statue and the rest of the statue falls on it and is shattered to dust and blown away by the wind. After this the stone grows to fill the whole earth. Then Daniel explains what the dream means. The different metals of the statue represent world empires. The head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon. Daniel explains how each of the successive sections of the statue replace the one before it. The feet of iron and potters clay are not stable and the stone cut without hands destroys the feet and the statue. We then jumped forward and looked at Luke 20:17-18. Here Jesus refers to himself as the stone the builders rejected, but this stone has become the cornerstone. He then uses imagery from Daniel to talk about how everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and it crushes anyone on whom it falls. This reference to Jesus as a stone is one of a half dozen references scattered throughout the New Testament. The amazing thing about this dream is how it has been accurately played out in a straightforward manner. Each of the successive world empires which came to power fit with the different sections of the statue. While some may argue the point I think the feet of iron and clay match really well with the way Rome became divided over time. We could accurately say this division was probably aided and brought on by the rise of Christianity and the way in which Christians would rather die then offer incense to the emperor. The amazing thing to consider is how Christianity has grown. It is now found on every continent on earth. It is the largest religion in the world and continues to grow. While it may be stagnant or in decline here it is clearly vibrant in growing in other parts of the world. In a dramatic way we see the dream of Nebuchadnezzar continuing to work its way out as the stone cut without hands continues to grow. One other thing really striking about this story is its impact on Nebuchadnezzar. He honors Daniel and declares Daniel’s God to be God of gods and Lord of kings. In this statement Nebuchadnezzar is recognizing the supreme power and authority of Yahweh. This is Nebuchadnezzar’s first encounter with Daniel and his God and we will see God continue to reveal His great power to Nebuchadnezzar as a way of calling Nebuchadnezzar to Himself and leaving him without excuse. 

We began to explore the part of Daniel where the king has a dream and ask the wise men of Babylon to tell him the dream and the interpretation of it. The kings advisors object to this and ask for Nebuchadnezzar to tell them the dream and they would give the interpretation. This angers Nebuchadnezzar who demands they tell him the dream as well as the interpretation because he believes they are frauds. They again object and tell him to know the dream is in the realm of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar is enraged and orders his executioner to kill all the wise men of Babylon. It appears on hearing this the wise men scatter. The executioner goes to the school where Daniel and the other new wise men in training are being taught. They apparently did not know what had transpired so Daniel asks what’s going on to bring on their death. The executioner tells him and Daniel asks if he could interpret the kings dream for him. The executioner takes Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar and he arranges for some time to seek God for the answers to the kings request. This stays the execution of all the wise men. God visits Daniel with the answer. This leads Daniel into four verses filled with praise. Daniel does this before he even goes to the king because he is certain of God’s provision of the answer. Daniel’s praise highlights how God is the source of wisdom and strength. God is the one establishes kings and removes them. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness. He knows all things and has made known to Daniel this matter of the kings. What we see in the beginning of this story is how Daniel is faced with a life threatening situation. His response is to turn to God depend on God and direct others to the source of wisdom and might. 

We explored what scripture has to say about the centrality of worship to the Christian life. Quite literally worship from a scriptural point of view is the reason we are saved. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, the third temptation was to worship Satan and receive the nations of the world without going to the cross. We looked at whether this was a legitimate offer or not, but according to scripture Jesus Himself recognized Satan as the ruler of this world prior to the cross. This raises of course other questions. One of them is when did Satan become the ruler. This had to take place when Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At this point in History Adam went from being the vice-regent or ruler of this world by command of God to being the conquered ruler of this world by means of following Satan in disobedience. Through his fall Adam lost his rulership to Satan. This only pertained to the command God gave Adam to rule over the earth in Genesis 1:28. Jesus as the new and better Adam through the incarnation was the perfect seed God had promised. This seed would need to face the wrath of God on behalf of men in order for them to be set free from their bondage to Satan and His rule. By doing this and rising from the dead Jesus conquered the ruler of this world and broke his hold over mankind. Jesus is now the rightful ruler of this world by means of conquest over sin and death and Satan. He sits at God’s right hand until all of his enemies are put under his feet, which is the very definition of subdue from Genesis 1:28 where Adam was commanded to subdue and rule. Jesus was tempted by Satan to bypass the facing the wrath of God on behalf of men in order to break the power of sin and death. It was a very real temptation. We see the weight of what Jesus did on the cross, in the garden as He sweated great drops of blood because of the sheer overwhelming nature of what he faced in his humanity. This was no walk in the park and Satan’s temptation was very real. At the heart of this temptation was worship. Jesus clearly declares to Satan, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” 

We worked through the second half of Daniel 1. We see here how Daniel and his three friends remain faithful to God as they are carried off into Babylonian captivity. This story really echoes the story of Joseph in many ways. They are both sent to bear witness before kings and princes. They remain undefiled when they are faced with temptation and worldly solutions. They both depend on God in the midst of situations which could cost them their lives. They are both preserved by God and both come to interpret dreams through the power of God’s revelation. They are both exulted to positions of power next to the king. They both foreshadow Jesus who was sent from heaven to earth to bear witness of the one true God before kings and princes. Jesus entered into a fallen sin soaked world without ever defiling Himself. Like Daniel and Joseph He found favor with God and man. Teachers were amazed at His understanding even at 12 years old. Jesus is the manifestation of all the wisdom of God. He is the greater and better Daniel. He refused to compromise when the ruler of this world offered him bread, fame, and rulership if He would only depend on something other than God alone. Because of all this Jesus could stand in our place as the substitute we all needed. He could satisfy God’s wrath and bear our penalty. In His death burial and resurrection He has established His kingdom and has defeated Satan. He is now the ruler of this world and has been exalted to a position next to God the Father. Jesus kingdom is a kingdom which will never end and will one day be the only kingdom of God and man. 

We really dove into the background of what happened to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. They were most likely from the royal family or from the nobility. They were also considered pleasing to look at and educated. These young men experienced a radically dramatic shift in their lives. They were taken from lives of privilege to the life of servitude in a foreign kings court. Daniel and his friends would never again see their families or their country. On top of the radical change the king had a plan to integrate the captured young leaders into the Babylonian culture. There was a three year reeducation program in place. They changed their names from God exulting Yahweh honoring names to names which pointed to Chaldean gods. 

We did an overview of the book of Daniel focusing on the historical context, some questions about the authorship, and the structure of the book. 

We will continue to explore this concept of how our whole life is to be lived to the glory of God. We strive to sacrifice for the glory of God. We strive to love others and the Lord. And these things will drive unity and fellowship in the body of Christ. These things are connected to being renewed in our minds. It starts in our head and heart and moves out into our actions. This is what presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice will start to look like. As our minds are renewed we will be able to test and discern what the will of God is. What is good and acceptable and perfect. 

Relying on God and His love for us is needed in our war against the powers of darkness. We cannot fight alone, and we are not alone. God, in His abundant love, will uphold and defend us as we get to learn to trust in Him. 

We ended on verse eighteen and this time we will be starting there. This verse wraps up the section we were exploring about the armor of God. The section on armor really sets a great final theme for wrapping up this letter. Paul encourages us to put on this armor to stand against the devil. We are not in a battle against flesh and blood. It may feel like it at times but everyone you encounter who is not a Christian is also hated by Satan. To the devil and all the spiritual forces at work in the world the very existence of man reminds them of their defeat at the cross through the work of Jesus. He was the new Adam and He did what Adam could not do. He conquered the fallen kingdom as the new and perfect representative of man. His favorite term for Himself was Son of Man. This is because His intention was not just to be the messiah of the Jews but to be the redeemer of all creation. Through His work on the cross He would make a way for all men who repent and put their faith in Jesus as Lord to be rescued from sin and death. Instead they are made new and righteous members of the kingdom of God filled with hope and peace with the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul is then telling us to put on this armor because this battle is an already won battle. The armor of God gives us the strength to stand the onslaught of the devil. Even men who oppose us don’t usually realize their being driven by spiritual forces go against us. Fallen men are not our enemies. They are pawns of our enemy and we should have compassion on them and pray for them. As we examined the armor it is clearly God working to strengthen us for the battle we face. We put on the belt of truth, because it is truth which holds everything together. The breastplate of righteousness protects us from the evil things in this world Satan would use to harm us. By living righteously in Jesus we will be rescued from the evil which could destroy us. Our shoes are shod with the gospel of peace. We stand in the gospel and it is not something to trample other men with but it is the good news which will bring them peace with God if they repent and follow Jesus as Lord. We are then called to take up the shield of faith which doesn’t only block the enemies attack but it extinguishes their fiery darts. Paul then calls us to put on the helmet of salvation. One of the ideas here would be our minds are protected but in addition our lives show everyone we are saved. It becomes evident to everyone that we are followers of our Lord Jesus. The final piece is the sword of the Spirit this is the word of God. We see this used so effectively by Jesus all the time. He used it in His battle with Satan during his temptation. He used it again and again in His conflict with the pharisees and Sanhedrin as they came against Him. We should all be preparing for conflict by memorizing God’s word and meditating on it. Paul really is calling on us to immerse ourselves in the relationship with God we have been called to. To live out of this relationship and depend on it to the glory of God.

We explored the section where Paul addresses slaves and masters. It is interesting historically because the roles of slaves and masters at this point in Roman history was much closer to the modern roles of employees and employers. Because of the slave uprisings and because it is estimated that two-thirds of the population of Rome were slaves, they were treated generally pretty well. Slaves had more legal rights then free laborers did. So when Paul addresses  slaves and masters we should be thinking of employees and employers. In a nutshell the goal of Paul’s teaching is for slaves to serve their masters or employees to serve their employers as if they were serving Jesus. The opposite is also true employers should be treating their employees as if the employee was Jesus. Ultimately this approach to the relationship between employees and employers is going to be concerned with the relationship itself, and in this there is going to be a lot of depending on Jesus to help us. The hope for the Christian employer or employee should be the eternal state of the person they are working with. 

We are looking at what God calls us to consider as we think about worshipping Him. We have looked at the fact that all of life is really to be lived in worship of God. Yet how important do we hold worship to be? It is such a core element of seeking God that it would not be overstating it to say worship to the most crucial component of the Christian life. We fail to think properly about worship when we associate it with one element of our lives. When we identify worship as praise and adoration of God we are correct, but when worship is only thought of in relation to singing we have missed the broader picture painted for us in God’s word. 

As we considered the first four verses of Ephesians 6 we continued to deal with the topic of roles and responsibilities which was introduced with the topic of marriage in chapter 5. What Paul addressed in those 4 verses was the roles of children and parents. These roles are critical and important. Paul is laying a solid groundwork for what is the core unit of the church; the family. What he shows us in this passage is how Christianity is a faith for families. All members of the family are called to engage and to respond to the direction God has given. Children are addressed as being capable of engaging in a relationship with God which drives their actions. They are called to obey their parents in the Lord. They are also called to honor their father and mother. Children are promised their obedience and honor of their parents will result in a long life and things going well with them. Fathers and by extension mothers are called to not provoke their children to anger but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This essentially lays the responsibility for Jesus focused living and instruction squarely at the feet of parents. These are important roles and responsibilities which have far reaching impact for the church. 

We worked through the last part of the section on the roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives. The picture the text paints is majestic in how it points us to the person and work of Jesus for the church, as the model for married couples to look to. Wives can think of their role as mirroring the role of the church in its relationship to Jesus. Men can think of their role as mirroring the role of Jesus in how He leads as a servant and lays down His life for the church. Paul even points us back to the creation of Eve for Adam as a foreshadowing or a picture of Jesus relationship to His bride. Paul goes so far as to say the mystery of marriage is it’s creation is a picture of Jesus and His bride. In other words the greater and better reality of marriage is found in Jesus and the church. One of the most beautiful pictures of this is found in how when Eve is created even her creation is a mirror of how the church will be created by God for Jesus through His work on the cross. God put Adam to sleep as if in death and took a piece of his side as if it was pierced and He fashioned from this a bride for Adam because God was thinking of the future death of Jesus and how His side would be pierced and from Jesus shed blood God planned to fashion a bride for His Son. So marriage is this amazing picture we have been entrusted with. It is important for us to see it in this light and value it as the foreshadowing it is. This just raises the bar on how important it is for husbands to love their wives like Jesus loves the church and gives Himself up for it. It also provides a clear reference for how submission and respect of the church to Jesus is a guide for the wife to submit to and respect her husband. The thing which is really clear from the passage is how both of the spousal roles are ones which they are called to take upon themselves. It is not the husbands job to force the wife to submit and it is not the wives job to demand the husbands love. Both of them are called to enter into this because of their relationship with Jesus. In fact if you look at the curse as we did two weeks ago you will see how the roles the Christian is called to in marriage are really commands to overcome as much as possible the curse against men and women in the garden after the fall. 

We began to work through the section dealing with the roles of husbands and wives in the context of marriage. What we discover in this section is a call for Christian husbands and wives to work at doing the things which are contrary to our fallen nature and the curse. We explored how the curse of God on Adam and Eve brought division and strife into their relationship. In looking at the things brought by the curse we see how the things laid out in this Ephesians passage counteract the curse. It calls women who are cursed with a desire which is contrary to their husbands to submit themselves to their husbands. It calls men who are cursed with a work oriented outlook, where they are consumed by their work, to work at overcoming this preoccupation with work by loving their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. What we essentially see here is how our marriages are restored by the work of Jesus and through our restored marriages comes transformed families, churches and ultimately the world.

We examined verses 15-20 of chapter 5. Here we see Paul calling us to build up the body of Christ to be free standing moral agents in this world. The world needs to see people who are different and make a difference. People who stand for what is right according to God’s word and live it out. The opening verse calls us to walk in wisdom. The call is to follow the will of the Lord. In order to follow God’s will we need to know what God says and we need to cultivate a love and desire for God. In the context Paul gives us the example of not being drunk with wine but by contrast being filled with the Spirit. This example is one of many we could point to which demonstrates turning to God to find what we need rather than turning to something this world has to offer. Essentially Paul is calling on his readers to fined their fulfillment in God rather than making idols out of things which ultimately will not satisfy. The last two verses we looked at really call us to center our lives on living out a life of thanksgiving to God. Verse nineteen is a call to sing praise to God and to use the gift of music to encourage each other. The goal is even to make melody in our hearts to God. Verse twenty is a call to give thanks to God always and for everything. The understanding here would be how everything ultimately comes from God and is part of His plan for His glory and our benefit. In a fallen world this simply means sometimes pain is involved in the journey. When we discipline our children it will sometimes be painful. The pain is for their benefit. It is meant to curb them from actions which are evil and draw them away from God. God brings discipline into the lives of His children for the same reason to curb us from actions which are evil and draw us away from God. When we keep this perspective we can truly thank God for everything because we know it will result in good. 

The worship of God matters to God. While all of life is worship there are certainly things which God finds unacceptable. Understanding how to worship in the right way is the duty of every Christian. We all need the ultimate and only sacrifice found in Jesus death, burial and resurrection. Jesus is our only hope and the best possible hope. Any man centered method of gaining salvation is intolerable to God. We look at 4 different intolerable forms of worship of God. May we worship God in Spirit and Truth.

Today we turn our attention to how Paul is calling us here to be agents who call people out of the world of sin.We see a foreshadowing of God’s plan of salvation being heralded in the opening verses of Genesis.  This passage we are in contrast again and again light and darkness.  Philippians 4:8 teaches us to set our minds on, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”We should remember how we dwelt in darkness and where we came from.

We worked through the beginning of chapter 5. The chapter really began the time before last as Paul laid out the reasons to be motivated to be imitators of God. Namely, the great love God has shown us in Jesus and His work on the cross for us, which brings us into His family as beloved children. This foundation is the basis for Paul to address how the people he is writing to, face enormous temptations to all kinds of sexual sins. He lays out first how sexual immorality, impurity or covetousness shouldn’t be found anywhere in their community. He goes on to point out how even crude joking, foolish talk and filthiness should be replaced with thanksgiving. He also lays out how being made new in Jesus makes being connected to these things a contradiction. Meaning you cannot live a life devoted to intentionally sinning in these ways and expect to gain eternity with Jesus in heaven. Being devoted to these things is fundamentally idolatry and you are declaring by participating in these things where your heart really is committed. Paul then warns how people will come along teaching how these things are acceptable but all they have to offer is really empty words. There is no truth in them and those who follow them will face God’s wrath. The big idea here is how everything we are should be rooted in gratitude to God for all He has done. A heart driven by love to focus on our heavenly Father is the best remedy to the world calling us to sin. 

We explored the end of chapter four and the first two verses of chapter five. Keep in mind Paul is addressing the city of Ephesus and probably the cities in the region. We know by the time John wrote Revelation the Ephesians were diligent about their faith and defending it in the midst of a perverse culture. But the one problem they had was a loss of their first love for the Lord. These things Paul is writing about in the last half of this book are really relevant for this issue. If we consider the first half of this epistle we will see it is very focused on the work of God in and through Jesus and the impact of salvation in saving and transforming us. The last half is laser focused on what we should expect this transformation to look like. One of the things we have seen and will continue to see is how the way we should be living in relationship with each other is tied to the relationship God has established with us. The reason we bridged the chapter last time was because of this very thing. Paul wraps chapter four by pointing out a laundry list of sinful actions rooted generically in forms of anger or envy and calls us to be a people who are set apart by kindness and forgiveness of one another. Why? Because God in Christ has forgiven us. And the beginning of chapter five really continues the emphasis because he starts verse one with therefore and points out how we should be imitators of God. Paul points out how our desire to imitate God should be very much like the desire of deeply loved children to imitate the one who loves them. Then Paul points out in verse two how our love should be measured against the love of Jesus who gave Himself up for us. Then Paul describes the sacrifice of Jesus as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. When we consider what Paul is suggesting here it is truly shocking. Jesus death by Roman crucifixion was a horrific thing for anyone to see. Yet Paul describes it here as fragrant to God. How can the death of God’s only begotten son be fragrant in the Father’s eyes? Because Jesus is atoning for the sins of all those who God has set His love on. Jesus is making it possible for God to demonstrate His love for us. The love God has for us as rebellious sinful people is so intense that Jesus death to make this loves demonstration possible makes Jesus death a fragrant offering to God. Jesus death is a fragrant offering in God’s eyes because it enables His love to be demonstrated. This is why as imitators of God as dearly loved children we are to be a kind, forgiving, tenderhearted, loving people.