Christ RULES the FUTURE not COVID

I am preaching this Sunday (over ZOOM) on Daniel 12:5-13. This is our final sermon in the book of Daniel. The title at this moment is “Working While We Wait.”  Here’s some thoughts from it:

Working While We Wait.

Daniel 12:5-13 is the close of the book of Daniel. Throughout the book, we have been shown many wonderful promises that Daniel waited in hope for: the arrival of God’s forever kingdom (Daniel 2:44, 7:18); the atonement of sin and bringing in everlasting righteousness (9:24); the arrival of the Messiah ‘the anointed One’ (9:25-26); God delivering His people from evil (12:1); the resurrection of the dead and everlasting life 12:2-3). Now that we reach the close of the book, we see questions being asked about the timing and outcome of all these promises (and especially about the predictions given in Daniel 11:2-12:4). We are shown that the right response is this: faithful obedience to God while we wait on Him. God calls his people not to get lost in speculations about end times, but trust in Him and be about the good works He has for us now.

God will bring about the end of human history and the resurrection from the dead the ultimate deliverance from all evil in his OWN timing. He is “not slow to fulfill his promise…but patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 1:9). With him “a thousand year is as one day” (2 Peter 1:8). He is eternal and knows the future. These traits about God are beautiful and awesome and humbling; they lead us to love and adore Him.

As Christians, we see that Jesus is the promised Messiah. At his arrival, came the beginning of the end of this age of history (1 Cor 10:10; Heb 9:26). As God the Son entered earth as a human, he brought with him the kingdom of heaven (Matt 4:17). In his glorious mission, Jesus defeated Satan and sin through his death and resurrection. He brought in the new humanity and given his people the Holy Spirit. In grace, he made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins against and to be purified before God (Titus 2:14).

God’s people wait on God’s timing to bring about the end of human history and the resurrection of the dead. In the meantime, we are about the good works He has for us in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are comforted in the fact Christ is with his people “till the end of the age” (Matt 28:20b). Christ rules the future all of history, not COVID or any human ruler.