A Sermon with a Challenge to #ReEngage Your CIty/Community
A Crazy Dream
Pastor Bill Ferrell
Daniel 2:24-35; 44-46
"If you want to live the Daniel life.
The life of engagement for the sake of the city -
and a life of distinctness before God,
and a life of integrity before God –
Love the City."
We are studying the book of Daniel to answer the question: How do I live the life as Believer in an unbelieving world? How can we live in Babylon as citizens of Jerusalem?
Daniel is extremely relevant in answering this huge question. There has been a significant shift in our culture in the last 20-30 years.
Some years ago, we could say the United States had a culture that was generally supportive of the Christian belief. Either officially or informally they were supportive. But that is not true anymore.
And so, we are all like Daniel. We are Believers in Christ, living our lives in Babylon. And we are asking,
“How can we live a life of integrity in a pluralistic, polytheistic, unbelieving world?”
In order to help us, we are going to look at this passage and ask three questions.
1. What is the meaning of the two names?
In Daniel 1, we see that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, besieged the city of Jerusalem. He captured the city and historians believe that he exported about 10,000 people to Babylon. The Babylonians then took the top young men through an intensive re-education program to enculturate them into the Babylonian culture.
That was when Daniel and his friends were given a different name. They had their birth names, their Hebrew names. But in chapter 1 they were all given new Babylonian names. They had two names. What is the significance of having two names?
Let me give you some background.
The first thing that Israelites did when they arrived in Babylon, these 10,000 people, was to settle outside the city.
And prophets rose up out of that community. Including false prophets. And the leading false prophet was Hananiah. And in Jeremiah 28 - this was what Hananiah said:
“Don’t move into the city. That is a wicked, pagan
city. That is the source of the Babylonian culture.
Have nothing to do with it. Don’t move there. Stay
out.
God will judge the city and we will come back out on
top. We will have the cultural power. Have nothing
to do with the city.”
And yet - Jeremiah, a true prophet of God, heard about their situation and wrote a letter to them. And told the exiles what the will of God was.
And this was what the letter said. And it is amazing.
And it became the blueprint for Daniel’s life.
This is what Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 29:4 – “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into
exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and
live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives
for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage,
that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply
there and do not decrease.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you
into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in
its welfare you will find your welfare.”
Now this must have been absolutely incredible to the people who heard this. This seemed counter-intuitive to what they thought God’s will was. There are three things God is saying here.
1) Get the big picture for what I am doing.
God was saying,
“It is part of my plan that you lost
the cultural power. It is part of my plan that you
Believers now have to live in a wicked, pagan city. It
is part of my plan.
It is part of my plan to renew you. And to change
you. And to grow you. It is part of my plan to change
them. And to grow them. And to renew them. It is
part of my plan to get my word out into the world.
Your loss of cultural power,; your need to live as
Believers in an unbelieving world is part of my plan.
I designed this whole thing. So, move in there. Plant
yourselves. Become part of the city.”
That’s the first thing. It’s a big plan. “I was the One who put you in the pagan cities of the world.”
The second thing he said was:
2) You do NOT have to assimilate or separate.
He said those are not your only choices. Hananiah, the false prophet, was saying,
“Stay out or else you will assimilate, and you will lose your identity. So, don’t assimilate – separate.”
And God says in Jeremiah’s letter, “Those are not
the only two choices. On the one hand, don’t
assimilate. Don’t lose your identity. Multiply there.
Do not decrease. But increase in number.”
That means – don’t lose your identity. Don’t fade into the culture. Don’t just become Babylonians. Know who you are. Stay in a covenant relationship with me.
So, on the one hand he was saying: Keep your identity. Do not assimilate. And on the other hand, build houses. Settle down. Plant gardens. Eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters.
He says seek the prosperity of the city.
I want you to be deeply involved in the life of the city. Economically. Culturally. Intellectually. Practically. I want you to raise your families there.
I want you to be deeply involved, deeply engaged in the life of the city. And – living distinctly as my people. Holding onto your Christian worldview.”
He was calling the people to be spiritually bi-cultural. He said,
“I want you to move into the wicked city of man. But I want you to remain citizens of the city of God.”
He said,
“I don’t want you to love me and hate the
city. Or love the city and forget me. I want you to
love both.”
3) He said, “Here is how you can do that.”
How can you do that? How can you avoid assimilating and avoid separating? How can you truly be bi-cultural?
He said right here - “Pray for the city. Seek the peace for the city. “Shalom” for the city. Because if it prospers – you too will prosper.” And that’s the key. That is your motivation.
The Hebrew word “shalom” in the Bible means “Complete and total well-being. Multi-dimensional well-being and blessing and fulfillment.”
It means, “Spiritual well-being. And physical well-being. And material well-being. And economic well-being.”
And what he is saying is this: “I don’t want you to just go there and build your little churches and live
in isolation away from the rest of the culture. I don’t want you to create a separate community that criticizes all those on the outside.
I want you to make this a great place. I want you to make it safe. I want you to make it prosperous. I want you to help people in need.
And I want you to spread the faith. I want you to do everything you can out of love for the city.”
The false prophets were saying,
“Don’t pray for the
city. Pray against it. Pray that it will be judged so
we will be back in power.”
And the true prophet, and God himself says, “See
how broken the city is and seek its peace. Don’t
stand off and despise it. Don’t stand in your little
holy huddles and criticize the city. Love the city.”
Love the city of man for the sake of the city of God. Live in both. Have two names.
Now, that is the first principle.
Most Christians don’t understand this. Most Christians think you either assimilate or you separate. Daniel was different. This was his blueprint. Daniel was bi-cultural.
Daniel believed in God. He was absolutely committed to the God of the Bible. But – what did he do to get his job?
He was in the civil service. He was in the government. The wisemen were the people who ran things. And we saw in Daniel 1 that he went through a very rigorous training program in Babylonian culture.
Let me show you something that might blow your mind. In 2:27 we read:
“Daniel answered the king and said, ‘No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or
astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked.’”
You know what that is saying? That is what Daniel was. He was part of that group he just mentioned. Wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers.
These were the advisors in Babylon. These were the members of the administration. These were the members of his council. And Daniel was one of
them.
And for Daniel to get into his position – what did he have to study? Enchanting, magic, and divining. He had to study all of Babylonian culture. Including all that stuff.
There are a lot of Christians today who would say, “We can’t touch any of that stuff. We must not be polluted like that.” Really? What are you going to say about this passage?
Daniel was a Believer who mastered that material. And yet he kept his distinctive Christian biblical worldview.
And therefore, he was living and working at the highest levels in that pagan culture. In that pagan government. And yet he was doing it distinctively as a Believer of the God in the Bible.
How did he do that? The blueprint of his life was Jeremiah 29. Unfortunately, many of us choose. assimilation or separation.
I am not saying that to be shaming or state how bad anyone is for doing that. No. To be bi-cultural can be hard.
This isn’t easy. Here is one of the reasons why. I’ll give you an illustration.
Let’s say you are a Christian actor. What kind of roles can you take and not take? As a Christian, are there roles that you shouldn’t take? Are there roles that you should take?
If you never ask that question, if you never ask, “How does the cross of Jesus Christ, how does the resurrection, how does the Word of God influence how I do my acting?”
If you never wrestle with that – you have assimilated. You have lost yourself in the culture.
On the other hand, if you ask, “Where are the rules? And I can tell you - hey - there are these very clear rules in the Bible. I can tell you what roles you can take and which ones you can’t.”
And you say,
“Oh great. Where are they?” And I would say, “HA! April fools.” There aren’t such rules.
And there are also not rules for Christian businessmen and women. Or for Christian salesmen.
Or Christian doctors. Or Christian nurses. Or Christian teachers. Or Christian social workers. Or Christian factory workers. Or Christian lawyers.
Why not?
Now - there are a few rules. There are some basic rules. There are the ten commandments. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t have sex outside of marriage. Basic rules.
But here is the problem. If you don’t ask the question: “What roles can I take and what roles can I not take?” If you don’t ask the question – you are an assimilationist.
And yet if you insist that there have to be rules – you are a separationist.
You don’t want to do the hard work of thinking and praying and getting council from other Christians and working it out.
God had called us to be Daniels.
Unfortunately, a lot of churches say exactly what Hananiah said. Not what Jeremiah said. A lot of churches say to Christians, “Stay away. Stay away from those nasty places of polytheistic, relativistic, secular culture. Stay away. It’s not a good thing to live there.”
And yet Jeremiah said,
“No. God is calling you to
do two things. First of all, God is sending you there
for the prosperity of the city.”
The city needs Christians. The city needs people
who will serve and who will minister and who will
be salt and light in the city.
AND God also says
“You need the city. I have put
you there for your sake. You spiritually need the city
every bit as much as the city needs you.”
The city. The place you live. Where you go to school. Buy your groceries. Have neighbors. Work. Play golf. Live in retirement. Where you interact with non-Christians.
I hope you have some non-Christian friends. If not – you have separated yourself.
When I just spend time with Christians, I find that I have a lot of pat answers about life. Life can appear to be very black and white. There are rules. But then I have learned that a lot of the pat answers are stupid.
And there have been times when I thought I knew why people don’t believe in God and Christianity. And then I discovered as I talked to people who don’t believe in God - sometimes have some pretty good reasons.
I have found that raising my family in the city has been the best thing for them spiritually. One of the best things for my kids was to raise them in an area filled with non-Christians.
There is a national Christian program called “meet you at the pole.” It is where high school kids meet on the first day of school at the flagpole to pray a short prayer.
It is a way of being a witness for Christ and to come together and pray for the school. On my son’s first day of his freshman year, in a school of 2800 students - my son and one other student were the only ones who showed up.
Both of my kids have told me that being raised among non-Christians has helped to strengthen their Christian faith.
We need the city. It humbles us. It refines us. It grows us.
That is the first principle. Love the city.
Be engaged in the city. Don’t assimilate and don’t separate. That is the meaning of the two names.
2. The second principle is the meaning of the dream.
Now, this is a crazy dream.
Over the years Christians have looked at this dream and they have said, “Oh, this will teach us about the future.” And yes - it does tell us about the future. - But the way many Christians read this dream is like this:
“There is the head of gold. So, there is a gold
kingdom. And a silver kingdom. A bronze kingdom.
And then there is an iron/clay kingdom. And the rock
smashes the iron/clay kingdom.
So, all we have to do is figure out what that kingdom
is and then we will know when the Kingdom of God
is coming. Or then we will know when Jesus is
coming back.”
The meaning of the dream is much more obvious than that. Why do you think Nebuchadnezzar is freaking out?
It’s because the meaning of the dream is more obvious than you might think. Nebuchadnezzar essentially knows what the dream means. He can’t quite put it all together – but has a strong sense of it’s meaning. Why is he so upset?
This dazzling figure with feet of clay – who is that? In Daniel 3, we are going to see that Nebuchadnezzar builds a huge statue, a statue-of-liberty sized monument, of himself. He had always wanted that – he came to Babylon with a dream.
Like many people who grow up with a dream. It was a dream of a kingdom. But it was a dream of HIS kingdom. It was a dream to make himself something great.
And this dazzling figure is the way he wants the world to see him. A great towering giant, looming over the world.
And so, he has been pretty successful. He is the emperor of the world. He is probably the most powerful person in the world at this time.
He is in the list of the top 20 most powerful people in the history of the world. Not bad. His mother would have been proud.
But the dream comes and says, “Gold and silver look great. And bronze is strong. And so is iron. But underneath it all – you have feet of clay. Your foundation is crumbling.
Your foundation is flawed. Your foundation is weak.
So weak that a stone – not even a boulder, but a stone – can knock the whole thing down.”
He is scared to death. He doesn’t quite know what it means. But we do. And here’s what it means.
Most of us have dreams. Not necessarily quite the same size of dream as Nebuchadnezzar. But most of us want to be dazzling.
We want to create a dazzling image of ourselves. We want the world to see we are something special.
Some people do it with their looks. Trying to look great. In the gym. With cosmetics. And they do look incredible. They look marvelous.
Other people have a dream about their intellect. Or about their careers. Or as a mother. Or as a father. Whatever it might be – they have dreams. Here’s the deal - We all have dreams.
To be human is to dream. We come with a dream to build something. To show the world something.
But what God is saying to Nebuchadnezzar - is what he is saying to all of us. He says, “If you build your life on anything other than me, you are going to be haunted with dreams like this. With these kinds of fears.
Because if you build your life on popularity – you will be scared by the polls. If you build your life on money – you will be scared by what is happening in
the market. If you build your life on your looks – you will be scared by what’s happening in the mirror.
Whatever you build your life on - it’s feet of clay.”
And you know it. It’s fragile. And he says, “I am going to bring it down.” At some point, something is going to come into your life to show you what your foundation is.
Anyone who dreams of any kingdom but God’s kingdom - is coming down. He says, “And someday, my kingdom will come and will smash the systems of the world. And it will grow into a kingdom based - not on your glory – but MY glory.”
And that is the meaning of the dream.
The main difference between a Christian actor and a non-Christian actor, between a Christian businessperson and a non-Christian businessperson – is their foundation.
Why are you doing it? This is the primary thing.
Why? Whose kingdom are you building? Are you constructing a dazzling self that you want the world to see? Who are you doing it for? Whose glory are you working for? What’s your foundation?
So, the meaning of the dream is that everyone is building a kingdom. Everybody has a foundation of what they are doing.
And therefore, if you want to understand what it means to be a Christian in a non-Christian world – look at your foundation.
Don’t just look at what rules that you are or are not breaking. Look at the foundations. Ask those questions. Why are you doing it?
3. What’s the rock?
We see three things about this rock.
1.The rock is the Kingdom of God.
Verse 44. “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, not 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.”
Verse 35. “But the stone that struck the image
became a great mountain and filled the earth.”
The rock that grows into a mountain is the Kingdom of God. And the image shows us some things about the Kingdom of God.
First, the Kingdom of God is a completely supernatural thing. The rock is not cut out with hands. The image is a work of human craftsmanship and effort.
But the rock is supernatural. It’s not the product of human ingenuity. It is the not the product of human effort. It is a supernatural.
That’s what it means that it is not cut with human hands.
Secondly, the rock is the least valuable substance in the dream. You have gold. Silver. Bronze. Iron. And clay. A rock is the least valuable of all the substances.
And yet that is the thing God chooses in the dream to characterize his Kingdom. Why? Because in the eyes of the world, the Kingdom of God is always poor.
It is always less valuable. It’s always weak. It is never something that the world thinks highly of.
The third thing we learn is that the rock grows. You notice that there is this huge statue. But it is not a huge mountain that smashes the huge statue.
It is a small thing that crushes the world system. And then grows gradually into a mountain that fills the whole world.
And that tells us something extremely important.
The Kingdom of God is a growing thing. It’s a gradual thing. It does not come in all at once. It does not come and suddenly wipe out everything that is wrong. The Kingdom of God comes in two stages.
It came the first time when Jesus Christ was born. But it came in weakness and in service. And it did not wipe away all the evil in the world. Then at his second coming the Kingdom of God will come in total power and will fill the whole earth.
And what that means now is that Kingdom of God is already – but not yet. It is already here in reality – but it is not yet here in fullness.
And it is important for Christians to understand that in order to live in a non-Christian world.
The Gospel says on the one hand that I am complete in Christ. I am a saint. That is the already part.
But it also says that I am a sinner. And I am still sinning. That is the not yet part.
The Kingdom of God is here, but the kingdom of God is not here. It is already and it is not yet.
There is the truth of the Kingdom. There is something I can live for. Something I can die for.
BUT the Kingdom is not yet here in its fullness.
One of the things we need to thrive as Christians is the already/but not yet understanding of the Kingdom of God.
If you want to live the Daniel life. The life of engagement for the sake of the city - and a life of distinctness before God, and a life of integrity before God – love the city.
And know your own foundations. Understand your foundations. And understand the overlap of the ages. Understand that the Kingdom of God is here. But it is not yet here.
Jesus had two names. God and man. He was the real Son of God. But he became real flesh and blood.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate dazzling figure. He is the only one who is golden from top to bottom. He does not have feet of clay.
He is the only one that you can really bow down to and worship. Jesus is the rock. He is the stone that the builders rejected. But he has now become the cornerstone for a whole new world.
If we understand Jesus in these ways – we can live a life like Daniel.
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In 2023 my husband and I went to Amsterdam on our 20th plus three anniversary.
I absolutely loved it. Beautiful. Vibrant. Delicious food. Bread I can eat.
The city is very flat, and so, though it's a bit sprawling, most people ride bicycles.
That proved to be pretty intense for me—a whole lot of movement everywhere, so we rode once, and that was enough for me. After that, my nerves were shot, so we walked the rest of the time.
We went to a museum that talked through the history of Amsterdam. It astonished me that, even as late as the 1960s, Amsterdam was not a thriving city. Between the hippies and the drugs, it sounded like a trashy, sketchy place.
Today much of the city is beautiful. The canal buildings are restored. The canals themselves seem to be in good repair.
City planners spent a few decades gradually building bike lanes everywhere, so traffic problems are mostly solved. (A city without traffic jams! Amazing! They even have a seven story parking garage, entirely for bikes.)
I started this message some weeks ago, before Helene devastated Bob Perry’s community in Roan Mountain, among many other devastations.
Lord, as I think about Amsterdam, I think about Isaiah 61:4: “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”
Lord, I have in my mind a visceral representation of a city that was actually devastated, that became beautiful again. Thank you that this is one of the promises that you speak over your children: that we get to rebuild, restore, and renew.
Lord, for those who have that calling, please breathe on those efforts.
For those who live in a city, or are called to a city; for those who are literally an old house, or working to restore a devastated community, bless those efforts.
Lord, as we pray as we go about our day, or speak peace to the grocery stores where we shop, may we be part of the work of restoration.
Lord, when we think of the intensity of destruction, please come through again, Lord, with time and creative solutions, until a city or community is transformed.
Lord, please speak hope to the hopeless places that might be popping up in our lives.
You actually do have a solution.
Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work,
Amy Joy Lykosh