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Sunday, February 22, 2015

Go Your Way

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday, February 22, 2015.  The Bible verses used are Daniel 12:1-13.


            Today we start a new sermon series.  It’s called “The End of Time”.  We’re going to look at what the Bible has to say about the time when everything, even time itself, comes to an end.
            And just that, in and of itself, is a hard concept for us to grasp.  How can time come to an end?  How can there be something that comes after time?  For that matter, how can there have been something before time?
            It’s something that really does not make sense to us.  Time is one of the few things we can take for granted in our lives.  For every event, there’s something that came before and there’s something that will come after.  How can there be a time when there is no time?  We cannot even really say it properly, much less understand it.
            But the Bible tells us it’s true.  In the first chapter of Genesis, we’re told that God created light, God saw that it was good, God separated the light from the darkness, and there was evening, and there was morning.  The first day.  So God existed before the first day.  God existed before there was such a thing as a day.  God existed before time itself.  God created time--days and hours and minutes and all the rest.  And if God existed before time, it follows that God will exist after time.
            As we start this sermon series, “The End of Time”, I need to tell you that the whole subject of the end times is not one that I feel very comfortable with.  I certainly don’t feel like I’m any kind of an expert about it.  I don’t know that I’m an expert on anything, but to the extent that I am an expert on something, the end times is not it.  There are probably some of you who know more about it than I do.  I’ve always looked at Jesus’ statement--which we’ll talk about next week--that no one knows the day or the hour at which the end will come and just left it at that.  Maybe you have, too.
            But that’s not a good thing for me to do.  Because the Bible does talk about the end times.  It does so in several places, going back before the birth of Jesus.  Ignoring those places is laziness on my part.  It’s just a way of not dealing with a subject that makes me uncomfortable.  The passages that talk about the end times are in the Bible for reasons.  There are things we’re supposed to learn from them.
            So, we’re going to talk about some of them, and maybe we’ll all learn together.  The first passage we’re going to talk about comes from the book of Daniel.
            The passage we read today is part of a vision that the prophet Daniel had.  The vision tells of mighty kings, the king of the north and the king of the south, who are going to fight a huge battle with large armies.  Lots of people are going to die.  Lots of countries are going to be destroyed.
            But, in the passage we read for today, Daniel is told that there will be someone who protects God’s people.  Michael, the great prince, is going to be there.  There’s going to be a time of distress like the world has never seen before. 
This passage does not talk about exactly what that time of distress will be like.  It might be war, either the war that Daniel was told about or some different war.  Or it could be something else.  It could be some sort of ruthless dictatorship or police state.  It could be some sort of assault on Christianity.  We don’t know what it will be.  The passage does not say. 
But what the passage does say is that God’s people, the people whose names are written in what’s referred to as the Book of Truth, will be delivered.  Both people who are still living and people who have already died will be delivered.  We’re told that “those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the star for ever and ever.”
            That implies, of course, a day of judgment.  There are those who are wise.  In this context, “wise” does not mean smart; wise means those who have faith in God and put their trust in God.  They have their names entered into the Book of Truth and are saved.  Presumably, then, there are some who are not wise, who don’t have faith in God and don’t put their trust in God.  They don’t have their names entered into the Book of Truth.  What happens to them? 
Well, the passage does not say they will go to hell, at least not in Daniel.  What it says is they will awaken to “shame and everlasting contempt”. 
            On the other hand, maybe that would be a form of hell.  To live in constant shame.  To be held in everlasting contempt.  Have you ever felt that way?  Have you ever felt completely and totally ashamed of who you are?  Have you ever felt like you were held in total contempt by everyone around you?  That might be a form of hell, I think.  To have everyone look down on me, to have everyone think I was worthless, to have everyone treat me like my existence was just a waste of space and oxygen, to have there be no one who considered me to be a worthwhile or good or even useful person.  That might very well feel like hell.
            So, getting back to the questions I asked a little bit ago, why is this passage in the Bible?  What are we supposed to learn from it?
            Well, here’s what I take from it.  At the end of the passage, Daniel asks what the outcome of all this is going to be.  Here’s part of what he’s told, “Go your way...The words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end.  Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked...Go your way till the end.  You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
            So what’s that mean?  I think what it means is that, if we’re among the wise, if we’re among the ones who put our faith and trust in God, then we really don’t have to worry too much about all this.  God will protect us.  God will be there for us.  God will deliver us.
            We don’t know when the events of the end are going to take place.  Daniel asked about that, and he was told “It will be for a time, times and half a time.”  And Daniel went, “Huh?”  Well, what he actually said is, “I heard, but I did not understand.”  And we can sympathize with him.  At least, I can.  Some people look at current events and say maybe we’re in the end times now.  I don’t know.  I suppose we could be.  Daniel did not know when the end would come.  Jesus, when he was on earth, did not know when it would come.  It could be thousands of years from now.  It could be before I finish the message today.  There’s no way to know.
            But what we do know is that, if we put our faith and trust in God, we’ll be okay.  We’ll be covered.  We’ll have our names entered into the Book of Truth. 
            You know, so many times, when the end times come up, we look at them fearfully.  We focus on the time of distress.  We look at all the terrible things that are supposed to happen, and we get scared of it all.
            But what this passage tells us is that we don’t need to be scared.  Yes, there will be terrible things that happen.  Pretty much all the Bible passages that deal with the end times agree on that point.  The book of Daniel tells us that there will be distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations.  And our earthly lives will be affected by that distress.  We will not be exempt from it.
            But we will be delivered from it.  The time of distress will affect our earthly lives, but it will not affect our eternal lives.  If we put our faith in God, if we trust God, God will deliver us.  We can do what Daniel is told to do.  We can go our way.  And when the time comes, we will rise to receive our allotted inheritance.
            We don’t know when the end times will come.  We don’t know exactly what the distress in the world will be.  But we know that God will be involved in it.  God will create the end, just as God created the beginning.  And if we put our faith and trust in God, we don’t need to be afraid of it.  We can be at peace.  We can go our way, secure in the knowledge that God will deliver us.

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