Pastor Timothy Patoka 1 Sunday of End Time: Reformation; November 4, 2018 Servants Of The Most High God Daniel 3:16-28 st
1) Serve God Always And Only 2) Bring Praise To God By Serving Him October 31st, 1517 is one of the dates that has changed the Western world. It was on this day that a monk named Martin Luther posted 95 discussion topics in the town of Wittenberg, Germany. What started as an attempt to have a scholarly debate about the role of indulgences, repentance, and other matters in the Roman Catholic Church soon became a global movement called the Reformation. This Sunday we’re celebrating the Reformation which would lead to the creation of the Lutheran Church, many other Christian denominations, have various political effects as well. But the Reformation’s primary focus is not about who started it. Rather it is about how God used his servant, Martin Luther, to bring back a renewed focus on God and his Word as the sole source of authority and comfort in religious matters. Luther was not the first such servant of the Most High God. As we look at our verses for this morning from the prophet Daniel, we see 3 Old Testament believers called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who also were servants of the Most High God. While they did not start a Reformation movement, they did serve God always and only even in the face of certain death. And by doing they brought praise to God. 1) Serve God Always And Only Our verses take place around the year 575 B.C. in the nation of Babylon. God had allowed the Babylonians to conquer the Israelites because they failed to live up to their agreement – to serve God always and only. Since they sinned as a nation, God disciplined them as a nation. It is while they are in exile in pagan Babylon we come across Daniel chapter 3. In the first half, which we did not read, we learn that their King Nebuchadnezzar had built a golden image, that everyone was to bow down and worship. And if anyone did not do this, the punishment was death by a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were believers and rightfully refused to worship the golden image despite the consequences. As they told him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18) While Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that God could miraculously save them from the fiery furnace, they did not know if he was going to. Yet they stuck to their guns. And so did King Nebuchadnezzar. He followed through on his punishment. In a fit of rage he heated the furnace up to its highest setting, had his strongest soldiers tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in their flammable clothes, and had them thrown into the furnace to 1
Pastor Timothy Patoka 1 Sunday of End Time: Reformation; November 4, 2018 die a fiery death. While we know that things did not turn out as expected, I want to pause here in the historical account. st
It must have surprised everyone that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship the golden image. Any human’s survival instinct would tell them that if you have a choice between death by fire or life by blending in the sinful masses, you’re going to choose life. We could even justify their action by saying that this idol worship was just going through the motions, that the heart was not involved at all. Yet Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that to be servants of the Most High God means to serve God only and always. Even if it means sticking out from the sinful masses like a sore thumb and being thrown into a fiery furnace. How well would we serve God if it meant sticking out in a not so great way? Thankfully, it is unlikely we will face such a situation like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego due to our constitutional rights. But what about in situations with our friends, role models, or coworkers? That’s where the temptations will show themselves. Not all our friends live godly lives. And if we’re going to hang out with them, the time will come when we’ll need to decide to stick out as a servant of the Most High God or join in their sinful activity. If we want to gain the respect of our role models or move up the job ladder, the time will come when we’ll need to decide to stick out as a servant of the Most High God and keep our integrity or cut corners and take credit for someone else’s work. Perhaps that decision will come not in what we choose to do, but rather in what we choose to not do – to remain quiet when we know we should speak up for the truth. Servants of the Most High God ought always and only to serve him, even if it means sticking out in a not so great way. That’s because there is no one else worthy of such devotion than our Most High God. He alone has been with his believing children since the beginning of time. Read through the pages of the Old Testament and the New Testament’s book of Acts to see the details. For not only will you read of miracles and God shaping the world’s events, but you’ll also read about his very own Son, Jesus Christ, who did what no other being has ever done. How God himself took on flesh and lived under the law that he wrote in the first place. How Jesus stuck out like when he refused to sin like the masses around him. How the Most High was considered the Most Low when he suffered the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross. How he rose from death itself and continually comes through on his promise of forgiveness to those who believe and repent. There is none like the Most High God in terms of power or love or forgiveness. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew this which is why they served God always and only even if it would mean dying in a fiery furnace. Because not only was the Most High God able to save them from its flames, but, if they were to perish, God would still bring them to their eternal home in heaven. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had nothing to lose but everything 2
Pastor Timothy Patoka 1 Sunday of End Time: Reformation; November 4, 2018 to gain. That’s why they could answer as they did, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18) And so with us. We have nothing to lose but everything to gain by serving God always and only. Even if that means sticking out from those around us. Because as we function as servants of the Most High God, we also bring him praise. st
2) Bring Praise To God By Serving Him You’ve been waiting patiently for us to get to the 2nd half of Daniel’s verses. Let’s get into it now. King Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the blazing furnace and expected them to die a fiery death. Yet things did not go as planned. As he tells us, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25) Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and an angel of the Most High God were safe and sound, walking around the fiery furnace. King Nebuchadnezzar now knew why they refused to worship the golden image. Their God not only had the power to keep them safe, but did so right before his very eyes. King Nebuchadnezzar called out to the 3 asking them to come out of the fiery furnace. And when they did, no one would have guessed where they just came from. As Daniel again tells us, “the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.” (Daniel 3:27b) In response to this miracle, King Nebuchadnezzar responds the only way he can – by praising the Most High God. It’s an amazing thing that God uses his servants to bring himself praise. This certainly happens when his servants do a show of strength or ability. Look at Moses splitting the Red Sea or the apostles doing miracles. But God’s servants can also bring him praise in their weak moments when God shows his immense strength and love. This is certainly the case with our salvation. If there was a chance that someone could have lived good enough to earn salvation, chances are that at least one of the millions of people who lived in the thousands of years between creation and Christmas would have done it. But no one can. No matter what technology we may have or what ethnic group we may come from, each person is a sinner. That’s why Jesus had to come, to do what is impossible for us to do, so that God’s power could be seen through our weakness. So that we can praise God for his completion and promise of forgiveness for us through his Son. And that continues to be the case today. God uses the weaknesses of his servants to bring praise to himself. He did that with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who had no escape from death by a fiery furnace. God worked through them so that King Nebuchadnezzar would bring 3
Pastor Timothy Patoka 1 Sunday of End Time: Reformation; November 4, 2018 praise to the Most High God. He did the same with Martin Luther who started the Reformation movement. It just wasn’t as visibly miraculous. But when you look back with the eyes of history, you see how God shaped world events so that Luther could bring praise to God. There were other people before Luther who had the same concerns about God’s Word being buried by historic traditions and papal decrees. Yet they either met an early death or weren’t able to get their ideas out to the people. While Luther was a learned scholar and an engaging writer, there were others who could wow and hold a person’s attention. st
So why it is we credit Martin Luther with starting the Reformation? It’s because of the Most High God who used his servant to spread his Word. By providing the right technology at the right time to do mass publication. By keeping the political powers distracted until Luther could formulate and share the his writings. By instilling in his heart that we receive the righteousness of God because of our Savior. As Luther himself would say in a sermon in 1522, “Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no price or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it.” (Luther’s Works American Edition 51, 77) Luther gave praise to God and his Word for all that had happened. Praise that we continue to give to God for bringing the Western world back to the three Reformation slogans – sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura. We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith in him alone, as told in Scripture alone. You and I will probably never be as famous as Martin Luther was. But that’s okay. We servants of the Most High God do not serve God so as to get famous, but to bring praise to the one we serve. To be and remain such a servant in the first place, we must be and remain a Christian whose faith is founded in God’s promises as written in the Bible. As his servants, let us live in such a way that others recognize whom we serve. We don’t need to go out of our way to show ourselves as servants of the Most High God. Living in this sin-stricken world will provide us plenty of opportunities to stick out in a praiseworthy manner. Perhaps it’ll be on Saturday evening when you cut the night short so that you can be rested and awake in Sunday morning’s worship service. Perhaps it’ll be when you model what a Christian lifestyle is to your friends or coworkers. Perhaps it’ll be when you speak up for the truth and defend God’s Word whether it be a learned academic or someone else with an ax to grind. But no matter how it happens, let it be said of you that you are a servant of the Most High God. And when there is praise to give, direct it to one to whom it belongs. It’s God who gave you your abilities and talents. It’s God who works through your weaknesses to highlight his saving power and love. May the Lord instill in us the attitude that his servants Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Martin Luther had so that we may serve the Most High God always and only and by so doing bring praise to him for what he has done for us. Amen. 4