October 28,2012
Dear friends in Christ.
I don’t know if you realized it when you came to
church this morning, but today is a very special day. Now, I admit, it may not be as special as
Christmas or Easter, but it is still an important day. It is still an important day, because today
we are celebrating the festival of the Reformation. We are celebrating how the Lord used a simple
man named Martin Luther to preach the Light of the Gospel to a world that was
darkened with false teaching and sin. We
are celebrating the fact that it was the Lord who enabled Martin Luther to
remain faithful to the Lord even when it seemed that death was certainly coming
down upon him. And, as we celebrate this
festival this morning, we will do so by taking a look at another man who also
faithfully served the Lord, even under the penalty of death. For this morning, we will remind ourselves of
Daniels life, how he remained faithful to the Lord and how he trusted that the
Lord God would, indeed, deliver him.
Just listen to the situation in which Daniel found himself in our lesson
today, “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went
home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three
times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just
as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel
praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him
about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next
thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be
thrown into the lions’ den?” The king answered, “The decree stands—in
accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be
repealed.”" (Daniel 6:10–12, NIV84)
Now, as you undoubtedly remember from your Sunday
school lessons, the decree Daniel mentions was the decree which some of the
governors had persuaded the king to put into effect. It was the decree that stated that anyone who
prayed to any god other than the king for the next 30 days would be thrown into
the lion’s den. It was a decree that
they had persuaded the king into making, because those specific governors were
jealous of Daniel, who would soon be promoted as head of all the governors, and
they simply couldn’t stomach the fact that this captive Israelite would now be
their boss. Yet even when Daniel heard
the decree had been made, he remained faithful to the Lord. Even though he knew it might cost him his
life, he went home, opened the windows of his house that faced east, knelt down
on the floor and began to pray, just as he always had.
But now comes the question: “What would you have done if you were in
Daniel’s shoes? Would you have gone
home, gone up to your upper room, opened the windows which faced Jerusalem, and
prayed to the Lord as you always had?
Or, would you have gone home, closed all your shades and blinds, and
timidly prayed to the Lord?” It’s a
tough question to answer, and I have to admit, I don’t know what I would have
done. I hope and pray that I would have
had the courage and the faith to remain faithful to my Lord even when my life
was on the line, and not hidden out.
Thankfully, we are not living in a land that passes
such laws. Rather, we are living in a
land where we are free to worship the Lord any way we wish to. We are living in a land, where praying to the
Lord does not constitute a danger to our lives.
However, we are living in a land where satan is continually setting
subtle traps designed to lead us away from the Lord our God. For example: how many times this week did a
love scene on TV draw your attention that much closer to the program you were
watching? How many times did you laugh
at a joke which had sexual connotations buried within it? How many times did foul language echo from
your lips? How many times did you enjoy
hearing and passing on the latest gossip you heard while down town? How many times did the thought of reading
your Bible completely fail to cross your minds?
These are but a few of the traps satan uses to lead us away from the Lord. For he is truly a crafty advisory! Rather than hitting us with an all out
assault, which threatens our very lives, he comes to us in subtle, tricky ways. Rather than trying to knock us off the path
to heaven in one foul swoop, he patiently moves us away from the Lord. Inch by grudging inch he works to move us
from faithfulness to complacency and from complacency to rampant unbelief.
This is why our God is calling on us today to remain
faithful to him, because even though our physical lives are not being
threatened, our spiritual lives are on the line. If we should fall to our enemy’s temptations,
we could easily be led into unbelief. If
we should be led into unbelief, we would miss out on the forgiveness which
Jesus alone can offer. If we miss out on
the forgiveness which Jesus offers, we will miss out on eternal life all
together. This is why our Lord calls us
to remain faithful to him, because the only way to fight against temptations
like these are to remain rooted in the Word of God. The only way to avoid the traps that satan
continually places before us is to make regular use of the opportunities we
have to worship the Lord our God here in church and to partake of the Sacrament
of Holy Communion. When we do these
things, we will be growing in our faith and knowledge of God. We will be better prepared and equipped to
fight against the assaults of satan. We
will even find that through the working of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God,
our desire will be to remain faithful to the Lord whatever the cost. For even if we should lose our physical lives
in faithful service to him, we know eternal live awaits, because as we know, he
alone is our Salvation. This is why the
Lord is calling on us to remain faithful to him even though it might cost us
our lives here on earth. Remain faithful
to him, trusting that the Lord our God will indeed deliver us.
This is exactly what Daniel did! Even though he knew his faith might cost him
his life, Daniel remained faithful to the Lord and trusted that the Lord would
indeed deliver him. He trusted that the
Lord would either deliver him from the hand of the king and the paw of the
lion, or the Lord would simply deliver him to eternal life where he would never
have to face the troubles of this world ever again. For Daniel, the outcome didn’t matter, he
remained faithful to the Lord and the Lord delivered him from the paw of the
lion, as we learn in our lesson today: “At the first light of dawn, the king
got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he came near the den, he called
to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your
God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” 21
Daniel answered, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his angel, and he shut
the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in
his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king.” 23 The king was
overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was
lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his
God." (Daniel 6:19–23, NIV84)
Well, in the same way that Daniel remained faithful
to the Lord, the Lord wants us to remain faithful to him in how we live our
lives. He wants us to remain faithful to
him all the days of our lives, trusting that he will deliver us from whatever
calamity befalls us. But how do we do
this? How do we remain faithful to the
Lord in any and every situation trusting that he will deliver us just as he
promised? We dive headlong into the Word
of our God! Though our faith is
strengthened by regularly gathering together for worship, when we realize that
we are awake for an average of 120 hours each week, spending only one hour with
God means that there are 119 hours each week that you are being bombarded with
worldly ideas and philosophies. That’s
119 hours each week that satan is working to confuse us and cause us to doubt
the Lord’s promises to deliver us from every circumstance. That means that during those 119 hours each
week, satan is doing everything he can to keep us from remaining faithful to
the Lord.
Sadly, this is the type of faith-life that the
average Christian has. 1 hour with God a
week, and then the rest of the week is spent without even thinking about
him. Would you even think about feeding
your family only once each week? Yet
this is what many Christians do and struggle all the harder to remain faithful
to the Lord because of it. This is why
we need to be in the Word of God each and every day. For it is in the Word of God where we receive
the soothing balm of the Lord’s comfort; the comfort that we receive through
the gospel message of salvation. For it
is in the Gospel that we are reminded of Jesus Christ our Savior. It is in the
Gospel that we are reminded how God took us from our dry, dusty and dirty
existence as sinners and led us into the cool refreshing showers of Jesus blood
which washed away every spot and stain of our sins. It is in the Gospel that we are reminded how
Jesus has already delivered us from the curse of our sins and the punishment of
eternal death by bringing us into a right relationship with our God. This is the comfort we find in the Gospel,
and this is the comfort, which moves us to remain faithful to the Lord,
trusting that he will indeed deliver us.
Though we may not be facing the threat of death at the paws of hungry
lions, though we may not be facing a room crowded with people who are calling
on us to renounce our Savior, we do face many things which satan uses to lead
us away from the Lord. Knowing this,
continue to stand fast in our Savior’s teaching! Continue to remain faithful to the lord
trusting that when he does deliver you, it will either be from harm while in
this life, or it will be to his side in the life to come.
This is how Daniel was able to remain faithful to
the Lord. He remained faithful to the
Lord in all things because he was rooted in the Word. This is how Luther was able to do it. Though there were many people who wanted to
take his life and many temptations to turn from the Lord, because he was
constantly in God’s Word, he, through the power of the Holy Spirit was able to
remain faithful as well. So then, heed
the examples the Lord has given you.
Dive into the Scriptures so that you might continually strengthen your
faith, and remain faithful to the Lord in all things. Remain faithful to the Lord even if it should
one day cost you your life. Remain
faithful to the Lord trusting that he will indeed deliver you from harm.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
