Living for the Far Kingdom

“And they all lived happily ever after.”

In the late 1990s, the Disney company, known for creating magical experiences, took on a new and ambitious project - a town called Celebration.

Located just outside of Orlando, Florida, Celebration was designed to be the perfect American town, a place where families could live in harmony. The streets were lined with charming homes, white picket fences, and perfectly manicured lawns.

In fact, the town’s architecture was inspired by 1950’s small-town suburbia, People even said it was almost like stepping into a movie set.

The goal was to create an environment where everything was picture-perfect, a place that appeared to embody the ideal community. Where people could live happily-ever-after.

However, beneath the surface of this pristine town, things weren’t as perfect as they appeared. The town, despite its carefully crafted appearance, lacked the organic, messy reality of true life. Celebration was a planned, manufactured community, and over time, residents began to realize that something was terribly wrong.

For despite having a fairy tale atmosphere, with the speakers carefully placed in the trees that constantly played bird songs and elevator style music, And having a 160 page book of rules and regulations that were required for living in the town, Crime was increasing rapidly, schools were failing, And families were falling apart

One of the most disturbing aspects of Celebration was the rise of moral decay that emerged among many of its residents. The community, which was marketed as a wholesome, family-friendly environment, had many of its residents engaged in illicit lifestyles, such as swinging, which was openly tolerated by certain members of the community, and stood in stark contrast to the idealized suburban life they were trying to sell.

Despite its picture-perfect appearance, Celebration’s utopia quickly unraveled, as the town, which promised an ideal, wholesome environment, became a place of moral decay, without the happily-ever-after promise coming true.

When it comes to living happily-ever-after, It’s something we all long for, And we can’t seem to help ourselves from looking to the things of this world to bring us joy and happiness. Which includes everything from bizarre attempts like Celebration Town To the empty promises of politicians who never seem to deliver.

The point is, our hopes in the things of this world, Or we might say - the “near kingdoms” of this world, always fall short. Sure, they may look good on the surface, But they always crumble, They always fall apart, They always fail to deliver.

And yet, in the midst of all these failed hopes for a better world, there is one kingdom that stands apart. Which is the Kingdom of God, which will never fail, unlike all of the kingdoms that have come before it.

For as we see in Daniel chapter 2, while human kingdoms rise and fall, God’s kingdom is an eternal kingdom, which alone can and will bring the promised happily-ever-after ending our hearts are longing for. For this is the far kingdom we are called to long for and live for, which is a kingdom unlike anything the near kingdoms of this world can offer. And so we must live for this coming Kingdom.

But: To live for the far kingdom we must believe that:

1. God has revealed it.
2. God has planned it.
3. God is the Lord of it.

1. God has revealed it.

So far in our study through the book of Daniel, we have seen how God is the sovereign Lord over human history. Which is an incredibly powerful truth that we need in a world that seems so CHAOTIC. Which is EXACTLY how Daniel must have felt, after his Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, Had been conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

See, up until this point, God has promised to bring about a King and Kingdom that would never end. An eternal reign through His promised Messiah, Who would powerfully rule and reign from the nation of Israel! And yet, here the Israelite people find themselves conquered and in captivity by a pagan empire, wondering if their God had failed to keep His promises.

And so the book of Daniel is God’s answer to the question, “Has God failed to keep HIs promises’ just like everybody else who offers a happily-ever-after ending. and the answer is, “NO” - God is not fail to keep His promises, For even though the near kingdoms of this world all have their day in the sun, Eventually the far Kingdom of Heaven will invade this earth, Leading to the happily-ever-after ending that our hearts are longing for.

Which is a truth that God revealed, First to the Pagan King of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, through a dream, And then to Daniel, so Daniel could interpret the king’s dream and tell the king what it means.

But this revealing of the dream wasn’t just for King Nebuchadnezzar, It wasn’t just for Daniel and his three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, And it wasn’t even just for the Israelites who had lost their nation and were in captivity in a foreign land. It was also for us!

Why? So we might know what’s coming just for the sake of knowing what’s coming? NO! For God revealed the future for the present! Because the truth is, What you believe about the future effects how you live in the present!

For example, If you knew you that next month you’d be given 100 million dollars, would you worry so much about that credit card debt, your car, Or your wealth? Of course not!

And why not? Because what you believe about the future effects your present reality! And my friends, the same is true when it comes to God’s plans for the nations and the world!

And, that’s not even the best part. Because it’s NOT as if God has simply told us what’s going to happen, He’s told us something even better than that, He’s told us that He’s PLANNED IT ALL!

To live for the far kingdom you must believe that:

2. God has planned it.

If God knows the future, but isn’t in sovereign control over the future, That doesn’t bring us a whole lot of comfort - does it? No! But if He both KNOWS and PLANS the future, We have all of the comfort we could ever need!

And make no mistake my friends, The God of the Bible BOTH Knows and Plans the future! For as we saw last week, and will see today in our text, God is completely and totally SOVEREIGN over human history! In fact, He’s so sovereign that:

²¹ He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; ²² he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.

Daniel 2:21-22 ESV

Now, for those of you who haven’t been with us so far through our study of the Book of Daniel, We saw last week how King Nebuchadnezzar kept having a terrifying prophetic dream. And so he gathered all of his wife men and he told them: “unless you tell me what my dream was and what it means, you’re all dead!” Which was troubling for Daniel, because Daniel was one of them.

And so Daniel and his 3 Israelite friends go to God and pray, Asking Him to reveal the dream and it’s meaning to them. And God mercifully and graciously does!

This dream and the interpretation is, by far, one of the most impressive things in the entire Bible. Because this dream perfectly predicts things that no human being could ever predict!

In fact, the book of Daniel’s predictive accuracy is why secular theologians and historians who don’t believe in God, really struggle with the book of Daniel. And it’s because, they believe miracles don’t happen. “People can’t know the future,” “It’s just not possible!” Which is why they desperately try to late date the book of Daniel, despite all of the evidence to contrary! And it’s because of their bias that MIRACLES cannot happen!

In 1946, a young shepherd came across a remarkable finding in Israel, which would later be called “The Dead Sea Scrolls,” And in these scrolls, They found over 900 manuscript copies of Old Testament books of the Bible, And do you know what book they found in them? Daniel. Oops. And I say oops, because they discovered that scrolls were written before the secular theologians and historians said they could have been written. Which threw their late dating of Daniel COMPLETELY OFF!, Because this showed that Daniel was written MUCH, MUCH earlier than they believed.

And upon finding this out, did they fall on their faces as King Nebuchadnezzar does in verse 46 and say: “TRULY YOUR GOD IS THE GOD OF gods AND THE LORD OF KINGS, AND A REVEALER OF MYSTERIES?” No… They once again came up with a new explanation, despite all of the evidences to the contrary, that Daniel was written later, and that it wasn’t actually Daniel of Babylon who wrote it.

Because that couldn’t have happened, Because otherwise we would have to believe in miracles, And if we have to believe in miracles, Then we have to believe in the God who does miracles, and that’s pretty inconvenient, Cuz this is a God who issues all sorts of “Thou shalts.” And we can’t have someone like that interfering with our daily lives!

But make no mistake God is a God who interferes with our daily lives, For His the sovereign God of human history.

Alright, so what did Daniel’s prophecy predict that has people so hell-bent on refusing to believe Daniel could have given them before they happened?

So first off, let’s look at what the dream was - as we read from verses 31-35.

In King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he saw a huge and terrifying statue standing before him. The head of the image was made of fine Gold, it’s chest and arms were made of silver, And it’s middle and thighs of bronze. It’s legs were were made of iron, and it’s feet were part iron and part clay.

And as King Nebuchadnezzar was looking at this terrifying statue, An unusual stone - one that was cut without human hands, struck the image on it’s feet, and and broke the entire thing into tiny pieces. In fact, it was so broken up that it basically became dust and vanished. And then, that small stone that struck the image became a great mountain that filled the whole earth!

So that’s the dream, And miraculously, God gives Daniel the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had, Which proved that Daniel has access to the God of Heaven, Who knows and plans all things. But still, so far it still doesn’t make any sense to us Which is why God has to give Daniel the interpretation as well. Which He gives him beginning in verse 36.

Now, I really do have to simplify a bit here, Because I spent hours and hours reading about this this past week, and I don’t have hours and hours to get into all of this.

But what we find is that this towering statue symbolizes 5 kingdoms. Some which have already come and gone for us today, But one which is sort of here, and one and a half that is yet to come.

Now, in Daniel chapters 7 and 8, we get a lot more information about all of this, But I’m not preaching Daniel chapters 7 and 8 yet, so I’m only going to reference some things from there. But first off, Right away we find out that the first kingdom is the golden head, And in verse 38, we find out that King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon is the head of gold. Which is actually the key to figuring out the rest.

Ok, so that one is super easy, What about the next kingdom? Well, as verse 39 says, That’s the one come after Babylon, And in chapter 5, we actually see that Kingdom come to power after King Nebuchadnezzar dies, Which is King Darius of the Medo-Persian empire. Who is the King who gets tricked to throwing Daniel in the Lion’s den in chapter 6, where God shuts the mouths of the lions, saving Daniel as a much older man.

So then we are told of the third Kingdom, which comes after Daniel’s day - which is bronze, and that’s literally all the information we have here in this chapter about them, Which doesn’t tell us much. But that’s where Daniel chapters 7 and 8 come in, Which make it crystal clear that this empire is Alexander the Great’s, who ruled the hellenistic empire.

Now, I’m not gonna explain all of the imagery today, But in that description it reads:

⁸ Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

Daniel 8:8 ESV

Now, historically, we know that Alexander the Great conquered the Medo-Persian empire, We know that - there’s no doubt about it. But what’s interesting is how closely Alexander the great matches the description Daniel gives here in Daniel 8. Because the great horn - who is Alexander, is suddenly broken off, Just as Alexander was as he died being just 32 years old. But what’s interesting is what happened after he died. Do you know what happened? His kingdom was divided up into…. FOUR smaller kingdoms, with his four generals each taking part. SPOOKY RIGHT! Buckle up - we aren’t done yet.

Have you ever heard of Blitzkrieg warfare? If you’ve studied World War 2 at all, then you have. Because it’s the war strategy that Hitler used to quickly take control of Europe. Basically, it’s a fast, overwhelming military strategy using coordinated attacks to move in quickly and defeat the enemy which prevents prolonged conflict. Which is why it’s often called Blitzkrieg, which means “Lightening War.” But Hitler and the German army didn’t invent the Blitzkrieg tactic. They only popularized it! Do you know who started it way before? Let’s look at Daniel 7.

⁶ After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.

Daniel 7:6 ESV

Ya’ll ever watch animal planet? Have you ever seen how Leopards attack?

How about that Circle of life, huh?

In Daniel 7, We find that Alexander the Great is symbolized by a leopard, which as you we just is a creature known for its speed and agility. And I’m not going to give you all of the examples of this, But this is exactly how Alexander’s armies attacked. and the imagery described by Daniel here not only perfectly reflects Alexander’s Blitzkrieg-style warfare But as we said earlier also fits chapter 8’s amazing description of how his empire was suddenly broken up into four.

Wild stuff, huh? And that’s not even the half of it.

OK, so what about the fourth empire? Now, unlike the previous 3 empires, where nearly everyone agrees who they are referring to, The last one isn’t quite so obvious, BUT - for now, I’ll just tell you it’s most likely Rome. Which is the empire that followed Alexanders,

In Daniel 7, the fourth empire is symbolized as a terrifying beast with iron teeth. and for a lot of reasons - which I don’t have time for today, represents the Roman Empire’s unparalleled strength, which was capable of crushing all others, Just as it did.

And finally, there are the ten horns, Which I believe is still future, But again - you’ll have to come back for that.

Pretty remarkable so far. Which is why secular theologians and historians desperately want to late date the book of Daniel.

Finally then, there’s the 5th kingdom, Which is the Lord’s

To live for the far kingdom you must believe that:

3. God is the Lord of it.

After all these kingdoms come to their end, the prophecy takes a dramatic turn. The stone, “cut without hands,” strikes the feet of the statue, shattering it to pieces. and this stone then turns into a mountain that fills the whole earth.

And as we read earlier, this stone is not a human creation. It is not forged by any earthly power or king - which means we DON’T CREATE IT! For as Daniel said, it is cut without human hands, showing that this is not of the kingdom’s of this world, but of the far kingdom to come!

In Daniel 2, verse 44, Daniel describes it, saying:

⁴⁴ And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,

Daniel 2:44 ESV

My Friends, There is NO question about this Kingdom! It is Christ’s KINDOM! Where He will very soon rule and reign as the Lord of all!

For Christ was the small stone cut without human hands, Who entered our world some 2,000 years ago, Not to rule and reign, not to set up His kingdom, But to live to die so that we might live with Him in His coming eternal kingdom, And NOT be crushed into dust along with the kingdoms of this world! And this is the ultimate and only hope we have to live happily-ever-after!

Not in the near kingdoms of this world, Not in human efforts to create a perfect society, But in the PERFECT ONE Who humbled Himself, being born to die that we might live! For HE IS THE GOD OF THE NATIONS! He is the stone that will crush them all! So fierce and quickly, that when He does it’s gonna make a leopard attack look like a sloth attack by comparison!

But, for those of us who live for the far Kingdom, Not the near and fading ones of this earth, We will join Him in His glorious kingdom which shall not pass away! and we join Him by simple faith as we trust in Jesus Christ as BOTH our Lord and Savior.

I close us today with the warning and invitation of Psalm chapter 2.

¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. ¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Psalm 2:10-12 ESV

Have you taken refuge in Him by His grace through simple faith? And if you have, Are you living for that far kingdom, knowing that it alone can make us live happily-ever-after?

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.