Good morning friends. Great to see you all today. If you are visiting, welcome especially, my name’s Alex. I’m one of the pastors here, and I feel a lot better now. Dan Hurst, kinda like he’s broken the ice. Today we are in the book of Revelation for Lent. Len is a season in the church calendar. If you are unfamiliar.

With that we’re here at two o’clock on the clock face. We’ve been through Advent this moment of Christmas, of celebrating God with us until lent this idea that God is for us in Easter, in his death and his resurrection. And so Lent is many things. Last year, last week, we talked about it as a time of bright sadness.

It’s a place of contemplation with the surprising twist that Easter lightens everything. And so we can’t escape some of that. And today, I’d remind you just before we get into the sermon proper that Lent is a season of prayer. It’s a season of turning our hearts towards God in that way. We are in the middle of a time of 24 7 prayer.

If you haven’t signed up. Here’s an encouragement for you. Just follow the link and pray for half an hour for this church community, for the community around us. Take the challenge of participating, not just in the kind of prayer we may be all wire a wired to, which is I need some stuff or I am sorry for some stuff, but actually broader.

Like praying with a whole bunch of people and there’s plenty of spots still to fill in. I’d love to see just that holy week just packed with all of us praying for what God will do in this community. On the weeks out the week of Easter and then onward on a time of Pentecost today’s passage. In the midst of Revelation is one that maybe is one of the more fear inducing of the texts within scripture.

Lent is a challenge. It’s supposed to feel emotional. Doing Revelation for Lent just on the surface is it’s lamp plus revelation equals pain, suffering difficulty. I did that to you and I apologize because I get to speak to a lot of you. I know from some of you, you’re like, I just love this stuff.

Let’s just keep doing that. And others of you are like, please, can we stop? I tend. To land with you guys that, that want to stop? I am I have suffered through this too. Right now I’m skiing with my daughters and I have one daughter who’s just wired towards moguls. And I am wired and just I moved towards the nice, smooth groomed flat a areas and revelation is like the mogul run of this time of year.

It’s it’s tough and it’s hard work. This idea that at some point there will be a future that might be decision orientated, which is what we’ve been ingrained with by so many of the literary works around Revelation, like the Left Behind series, like Late Great Planet Earth. Things that somehow have informed our thinking on this subject more than scripture, leaves us in a difficult.

Place. If you grew up in the Evangelical Church, my guess is that at some point you sat in a service and went home terrified because of what you’d heard and how it had been taught. I grew up in a church where at the end of every service, the pastor would say, close your eyes and I’m gonna. Count to 10, and as he counted slowly from 10 down to zero, he would start prompting with words like, you could go home tonight and you could get hit by a bus on the way home.

And you gotta make decisions now. Now, I won’t deny that the call to follow Jesus has imperatives. Jesus says, follow me. And sometimes a time to do that is limited, but there was definitely some spiritual abuse to the way that I felt that what I hope you get from this text during this season is this, that actually most of what you read is designed.

To be encouraging, designed to help you see that Jesus is ultimately victorious in all things and he is longing for people to come to him, longing for you to follow him well in life. And yet here we are in a place where it causes so much fear. And this brings us to today when you Google the five most common fears, a across.

The country. You have a bunch that you’d maybe expect. Glos glossophobia. Fear of public speaking means that if I said to most of you, Hey I’m just not feeling great, can you just jump up here and finish the sermon? You say, no, thank you very much. Some of you are like, no, I could do a much better job.

That’s fair. Bring it on. But others of you would say, no, thank you. Ara phobia, fear of flying. My kids started flying from year like zero, so they never had this. Every time we hit turbulence, one of them will yell out something like, Hey, it feels like we’re falling. And I’m like, no, don’t say that.

That’s terrifying. Fan phobia, fear of dying arachnophobia, fear of spiders. My wife moved to England when she was 19. England has the fastest spiders in the world. They’re not poisonous, but it means you’ll just wake up in the morning to see one, just dash across the room. Just as awful as it sounds. And there’s social phobia.

The fear of social interactions. More and more of us just struggling to say, I can just be in that room and be comfortable and be myself. Those are the ones you might expect. Pronounce this with me, if you can. Hexa cosia hexa phobia. Say it with me. Hexa cosia hexa conta hexa phobia.

This is the fear of the number 6, 6, 6, and it affects a surprising number of people. Companies won’t charge $6 and 66 cents for an item. People, if the house number is 6, 6, 6, we’ll have it changed to something else. It’s a number that’s ingrained in the kind of the minds of at least people that grew up in the church.

But what if I was to tell you again, in line with what we just said about Revelation, that everything about this is actually supposed to be an encouragement that you are called to follow Jesus. And even in the midst of everything that we’re gonna read today, he’s with you. He’s for you. So if you have a text in front of you, I’m gonna read from Revelation 13.

We’re actually gonna go back and just briefly look at chapter 12 to make sure you have the context, but. Here we go, man. This is heavy. Lock the doors people. The dragon stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on its horns on each head.

A blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast, its a its power and his throne, and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.

People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, who is like the beast who can wage war against it? This beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for 42 months, it opens its mouth to Blaspheme God and to slam his name and his dwelling place, and those who live in heaven.

It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe, language, and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast or those whose names are not written in the lamb’s book of life. The lamb who is slain from the creation of the world.

Whoever has ears let them hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go. If anyone is to be killed with a sword, they will be killed. This called the patient endurance and faithfulness and the part of God’s people. Then I saw a second beast coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb.

But it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed. It performed great signs even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in view of all people. Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

It ordered them who to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people great and small, rich and poor, free enslaved to receive a mark on their right hands and on their foreheads, so they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This caused the wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man. That number is 6 6 6. Jesus, help us please help me please to give words to navigate us through this. We take these scriptures as your word to us. Breathe upon useful for teaching, for learning.

Help us to know what we need to know. For those of us that come in carrying fears, come in afflicted, please bring comfort. For those of us who are a little too comfortable, please bring affliction and do that because you’re good and care for us and along us for us to follow closely in your way. Our men.

Yeah, Hsia, hexa phobia. The fear of the number 6, 6, 6, and if we’re honest, some of what we read on the surface feels at least, like it’s fairly terrifying. Let me give you a little bit of background to some of what you just read. In chapter 12, which was apparent, our passage Aaron taught on a couple of weeks ago, we read what might be described as a cosmic motility.

It’s not the story that you hear told on December 24th every year, but it is a nativity of its kind as revelation so often does. It’s like the story behind the story. So it’s like the thing that you maybe don’t see if you’re present, but it’s the thing that’s determining what’s happening there.

And so if we just flick quickly back to Revelation 12, we read this, a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with a moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. So the woman is noticeably, at least spiritually beautiful, captivating, almost. Any thoughts about who that might be?

Feel free to shout it out. Israel. Israel maybe. Mary, maybe like the church, maybe there’s all sorts of thoughts on that. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on its head.

And he thoughts about what that might be. A couple of different answers, like we talked about how we all have that kind of dragon ishness in it. But here in a second, it’s gonna give us some language around that. It swept a third of the stars out of the heaven and out of the sky and flung them to the earth.

The dragon stood in front of the woman who’s about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child who will, what rule? Over all the nations with an eye in scepter, a prophecy given at different points in scripture about Jesus, and a child was snatched up to God and to his throne.

The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Then war broke out in heaven. We’re gonna get more information here. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven.

The great dragon was Hurd down that ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him. So there’s this cosmic scene going on in the background, not necessarily something that happens physically, but something that’s determining what’s happening spiritually.

It’s the story that you don’t tell Yes, on December 24th and implies. There’s more to the Christmas Eve celebration than we’re gonna like cozy up. We’re gonna sing Silent night. We’re gonna go back. We’re gonna drink some hot chocolate and everything. We’ll be sweet and good forever. In Revelation 1212, it says this, therefore reduce you heavens and you who dwell in them, but woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you.

He’s filled with fury and because he knows that his time is short again, all of this. He’s in the kind of surrounding texts that declare that God is in control of everything that is happening. But somewhere, the implication from all this story is this, is that when we think about the church in this season, it’s like the church is in exile.

The church is in a place where now we’re told that this dragon, that this creature and the people that follow it are now dwelling and hold some kind of sway. And so the question that’s left is how does the church, how does this thing that God has created and birth through what Jesus did, how does it survive that this defeated dragon in chapter 13 will enlist help?

From the two beasts that we’ve heard described, let’s just look at some of their, like their tendencies or some of the ways they’re described. Just briefly again, the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. I saw a beast coming outta the sea. It had 10 horns, seven heads with 10 crowns on its horns.

Again, fear some kind of, at least in its image. And then on each head was a blasphemous name. The beast resembled a lion in part a bear, and a and a. What did I miss? A leopard, a lion, and a bear. And the dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. And this beast at some point is injured.

Seems like it’s a fatal wound. Comes back to life and people declare who is like the beast who can wage war against it again, on the surface. Intimidating stuff. The second beast is introduced, I think in, hold on a second. Let me just make sure I’ve got this. I saw a second beast coming out of the earth.

It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed. John describes these beasts in an interesting fashion on one hand on the surface.

They’re terrifying, and especially, again, we talked about this last week. If our mind reads this text and says, all this is supposed to happen in an unknown future, we gravitate towards fear. We wonder whether we can possibly survive this kind of thing. We wonder what will happen perhaps to our children.

We, we fear what’s unknown. It’s a very amorphous future. It can’t be grasped. We don’t know when it will happen. We’re not sure how long it will last. It tends to send us into a place of feeling distinctly uncomfortable, and yet the beasts are copies. One is a beast from Daniel. It’s has some of those similar tendencies.

And the second beast is simply a copy of the way Jesus was described. In the first part of Revelation, Jesus is described as a lion. That’s also a lamb or a lamb That’s also a lion. The beasts, their imitation of things that actually have real power. Eugene Peterson says this, John allows for their capacity to strike terrorists still, but he also shows them to be considerably shop born.

The old beasts have been around too long. They’re starting to lose their stuffing on the surface intimidating. But as we start to look deeper, we start to see that those who actually see them for what they are, see that they are no match for the creator of the universe whom they oppose.

This beast performs great signs, the second beast, on behalf of the first beast, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of all the people because of the signs, it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast. It deceived inhabitants of the earth. It pulled great numbers of people to worship the first beast.

It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power, tore given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that the image could speak and cause all who refuse to worship the image to be killed. It forced all people greater, small, rich, and poor, free and slave to receive a mark.

And this is what we’re getting to today on their right hands. Or run their foreheads so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This cause for wisdom, let the person who is inside calculate the number of the beast for it, is the number of a man.

That number is 6, 6, 6. So we feel the kind of terror of this image. We don’t know when it’s supposed to be. Right now. John is clearly writing about a future from his time. It hasn’t happened yet, although some of the markers of it may be there. The question is, who is he talking about? Who is this beast character and what is this number, this Mark now across history?

This has a fascinating like tendency to give Christians an opportunity to begin to imagine who this person might be and what it’s marked by be. This is some of our guesses over the years. Adolf Hitler. I guess makes sense. Bad guy. Joseph Stalin, another historical figure, histor, hysterical figure that was responsible for killing lots of people.

And now we start to hit like the western, the way we center everything around the west for just a few minutes. John F. Kennedy kind of was injured by something and then, he actually died, so it doesn’t quite work, but. Ronald Reagan, he had three names. They all had six letters. It was Ronald Wilson Reagan.

So people started to suggest it. It could be Reagan, Clinton, Obama. Trump starting to see a pattern here. People with power. Now I know you guys, and I know some of you like to think, so I made sure all these images were exactly the same. They’re just the Wikipedia thing. None of this says anything about which of these presidents.

I prefer to any other president. I know some of you that’s a mystery that you’re trying to work out, trying to uncover. Somewhere. What we see here is it’s at least un partisan, right? It’s both sides of the aisle. We’ve got Democrats up there, we’ve got Republicans up there. But this is a list of people that have been identified when you start to think of this as future orientated.

But it comes with a problem because somewhere each of these people has to be somehow attached to this number 6, 6 6, which were given in the book of Revelation. George Salman notes this. This is how people usually make it work. First, if the proper name by itself won’t yield the number 6, 6, 6, somehow they add a title to the name like President or Caesar.

Secondly, if it won’t work in Greek, try Hebrew or even Latin. Thirdly, don’t be too particular about spelling. Here’s the problem with all of these ideas across history that have emerged in this conversation. We can’t actually infer too much about from the fact that a key fits a lock if it’s a lock in which almost any key will turn.

Followers of Jesus have been intensely interested in trying to put a name on who this person might be. They’ve also done the same with this mysterious mark. The poor old innocent barcode was suggested as a possibility for this mark back in the early days social security cards or another one, family talks about how they refused all of their kids an opportunity to get a social security card.

’cause they were convinced it was the mark of the Beast Credit cards, no more air miles for you guys out there. You gotta get rid of all of those. Ai, another option that’s been presented. The COVID-19 vaccine was potentially on the list. The MAGA hat also made the list, but not the Make America healthy one that was considered.

Okay. Do you start to feel some of our obsession across the church with some of this language? It’s a pursuit of we need a name and we need a person who can be distinctly attached to this name. But the important reflection is that all of this stuff, this beast and this mark are attached to worship.

What the writer tells us is this, those who worship. The first beast receive a mark. That’s the negotiating point. There’s a worship of this person that appears who has great power and commands you to worship him in order to buy and sell. What is this, mark? How? How do we demystify? There’s a few things that I think are like sane suggestions in the midst of the craziness that you’ve already observed.

And back in the history of the nation of Israel, there was this habit, this practice that was across the whole nation hero, Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts, impress them on your children.

Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Seems part of what’s going on here is just another replica, another way that’s designed to be a copy of something God commands his people to do.

It seems somewhere this number 6, 6 6, at least in its origins, was connected with something that was already happening. The most sane interpretation of how those numbers align is that John is trying to tell us something about Nero, a past ruler of Rome and his followers, his empress that have cut, the emperors that have come after him, and how they have begun.

To persecute the Christians. Real persecution has not begun yet. Real persecution won’t come for a couple of centuries, but there’s markers of it, beginnings of it, and John is trying to warn them of what is to come. We’ll get to a little bit of more of that in just a second. Jk GK Beal says this, Nero in the imperial power symbols.

For any power that overreaches its proper limits by trying to grasp what properly belongs only to God. John is beginning to give a warning to all sorts of people, that there are things that will try to claim your worship and they will go to any means that they possibly can to get hold of it, to draw it to themselves even.

Raising fear that you won’t survive. You won’t have enough to eat, you won’t be able to buy and sell as we read in the text, even that your life may be forfeit. That’s the conundrum that he’s trying to create for his followers or for his readers. In the first century, there were already signs as we saw.

If you could remember back before Christmas when we looked at the seven churches of Revelation that this was beginning to happen. This is Revelation chapter two. This is Jesus speaking through John. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet by a teaching.

She misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. The idea behind this text is this, that in some of these cultures, some of these cities, there were trade guilds. If you didn’t worship, if you didn’t worship the em to the give worship to the emperor, if you didn’t attend the temple that the emperor was worshiped in, you couldn’t access these guilds.

And so slowly it was economic suicide, your ability to earn gradually and disappeared. Some of the first followers of Jesus had listened to teachers that said, you know what? This isn’t a big deal. Just go do the thing. Make the sacrifice. Quickly bow down and then go back to following Jesus. It’s not really much of a deal.

John starts to paint a picture of what might happen when something like real persecution emerges a couple of centuries in the future. We still continue the same practice of the quick bow down. What about when the decision is quite frankly about Jesus versus everyone? What about when it becomes ever more clear that you have to make some kind of choice?

And the best way to understand this is not just through Revelation, but through another story that captures our emotions maybe in greater depth. This is not a new story in scripture. In actual fact, it’s a really old story. It’s really old story. I’m gonna turn for a few moments to Daniel chapter three.

I want to give you some background to this text ’cause it seems to be designed to have kind of a bit of a comic twist to it. Daniel is an Old Testament text. It’s set back in the sixth century. So sixth century BC about 600, 700 years before Jesus, the people of Judah have been captured and taken into captivity in a town, a city called Babylon.

Some of the best of them, the brightest of them, we might assume the wealthiest of them have been taken there to be offered big positions in the governmental structures of the day. To do that. They’ve placed them in a place where they can learn, they can begin to grow. They can begin to become educated in the ways of Babylon.

There’s been an early test for them in chapter one. They’ve been offered the foods of the Babylonians, the wine of the Babylonians, and they’ve made a decision to turn it down. It doesn’t align with the food laws that’ve been given as Jewish people, and so they say no. It’s like a, seems as we follow onto chapter three, like a bit of a test.

They pass it in Chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians, has a dream. In the dream, he sees a giant statue made of different materials. He learns that his kingdom is merely the first of many kingdoms that will follow, ultimately all wiped away, destroyed by the coming of the kingdom of God, the true ruler of the world.

He repents. He declares that the God of Israel must be the true God above all, gods is the language, or at least he does on the surface because get this for a moment, in chapter two, he has a dream about a giant statue that declares that all the kingdoms of this world are temporary. And then in chapter three, he does what?

Builds a giant statue. There has to be a certain amount of lack of self-awareness to do that, right? You have a dream about this evil statue that declares that all kingdoms are under judgment, and then just a few days or weeks later, you go and you’re like, I’m just gonna build myself a statue and declares that everybody must bow down to it whenever the musicians play.

These followers of these Jew, these Jewish people from Judah, they don’t bow down just as they refuse to take the wine and food of the Babylonians. In chapter one, they’re reported to Nebuchadnezzar, and this is a famous passage, many of you who have come across it. But here we go in chapter Daniel chapter three, verse 12.

But there are some Jews. Whom you have set over the affairs of the province. These Jewish people have become fairly prominent in Babylon, Shadrach, Micha, and Abednego. Maybe you know the names who pay attention, who pay no attention to you. Your majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.

Verse 13, furious with rage, Nebu as a summon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king and Nebu said to them, is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up Now, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zha, liar, harp pipe, and all kinds of music if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I have made.

Very good, but if you do not worship it, you’ll be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. Then what? God will be able to rescue you from my hand. It’s the same story. It’s just an earlier version. Same offer. You can worship and all will be well. You can buy and sell and trade. You can even amass great wealth for yourself.

Just bow down and everything will be fine. But if you don’t, I. Life is over. Now, you probably heard this story just like I did from a couple of sources. If you are under like 45, probably here Shadrach and Benny Veggie tails, if you are over 45, probably flannel graph or something like that. Either version told you this.

This at heart is a kid’s story and it’s anything but a kid’s story. It’s an offer. Simply step into the world of bowing down to whatever this world declares you should bow down to and all will be well or stand. And in this world at least it won’t be. Idolatry, let’s term it broadly as that. I know I dunno that the term fits.

Completely, but let’s call it bowing down idolatry. Something like that offers the temptation of a preferred future coupled with its thread of no future bow down and your great bow down and you even thrive. Don’t bow down and your life is over. Perhaps you’ve experienced that somewhere in your life.

I’m gonna tell a story that’s just a little bit vulnerable. I pulled this somewhere outta my me memory banks. It’s about two decades old. I couldn’t believe it had been that long. I just finished school. I had my first job like working, earning money. I had a group of people that I was friends with, none of whom were followers of Jesus, but there were people I was growing to care for.

We hung out a lot, and then one night we went into the city center. Now I grew up in the outskirts of a city called Birmingham. Birmingham’s, a city that you feel a little vulnerable in late at night. It’s never been. The most comfortable city in that respect. I often say it’s like Detroit.

It’s got that vibe to it. It’s kinda a place that you it’s rough and ready is the best way to describe it. It’s got some great people in it and it’s got some. People in it that, you wanna be careful about getting on the wrong side from, and you don’t necessarily need to do anything to get on the wrong side of him.

A friend of mine had just a few years before been beaten with a baseball bat because some guy said he touched his car and there were all sorts of stories similar to that made you wonder whether you wanted to be there alone. But we went out as a group and it just felt great. We had a great time.

We went to a restaurant, we ate some food, and then it got to this point. Late at night and I thought we were going home. And then my friend said, we’re gonna make one more stop. And I’m gonna be delicate because there’s some kids in the room I’ll say this is a strip more. That was a, you got it.

And I was suddenly stuck in between these two things. The temptation I. And then the threat. On one hand, I was someone who was following Jesus, and yet suddenly all of the possibilities presented just suddenly hit me. I knew that nobody from the church world that I was in would ever know if I went with these guys.

Suddenly there’s all sorts of like physiological, like the desirability of all of those sorts of things. And then on the other hand, there’s the threat. Of what it feels like. If I say no, suddenly I’m stuck in this city that I don’t know really. Certainly like after dark, it’s now after midnight and suddenly I’m torn with the idea of do I even feel safe going home by myself right now?

Do I wanna stay and feel safe with these guys knowing that what they’re doing is not how I want to live as a follower. Of Jesus. It’s that place of being caught between the two things. It’s the temptation of just bow down and everything will be fine, versus the thread of if you don’t, who knows what might happen to you.

Exactly the same story that Shadrach, Mesha and Abednego are presented with, and exactly the same story that John casts for the followers of Jesus in the first. Century. John Henry Newman says this, do you think that he, the dragon, the beast, he’s so unskillful in his craft, is to ask you openly and plain you to join him in his warfare against the truth?

No. He offers you bait, tempt you. He bids, you mount a laugh. He shows you how to become as guards. Then he laughs and jokes with you and gets intimate with you. He takes your hand, he gets his fingers between yours and he grasps them. And then you are his. CS Lewis says this in the screw tape letters. It’s one of the five books that I say every follower of Jesus should read.

At some point in a week or two, you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not perhaps a little excessive. Talk to him about moderation in all things. If he can once get him to the point of thinking that religion is all very well up to a point, you can feel quite happy about his soul.

That was the whisper from my friends that night. It’s all right. Like they knew I followed Jesus. They used to call me Ned Flanders. It was a beautiful little pet name they had for me. But also there was this message of oh, who knows what life could look like? Temptation threat. That’s the line between the two.

The godly response across my story, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The story of John in Revelation is that the godly response is faithfulness. Even when it costs something, and this is Shadrach and MHA and Abednego’s response. That’s one of the great passages in scripture. Shadrach Mha and Abednego replied to 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 it 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. Love this passage. I have this sign over our fireplace, and if not, even if not, he’s still good.

The God who can deliver us might, and he might not, and either way. And we will not bow down. Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, me Shak, and her beding go, and his attitude towards them changed. Warm coaxing, inviting with all of the blessings that bowing down might bring. He ordered the furnace heated seven times harder than usual.

And commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The King’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Miche, and Abednego.

And these three men firmly tied. Fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar lept to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors. Such a good story. Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? They replied, certainly your majesty. He said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.

Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, you have to feel ridiculous shouting this. In this moment, Shadrach MHA and Abednego servants of the most high guard, come out, come here. So Shadrach, MHA, and Abednego came out of the fire, saved, not from the fire, but saved in the fire the satraps prefects.

Governors and royal advisors crowded around them as you would and they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their hedged heads singed. Their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. This is the invite across those stories. Faithfulness is the godly response, but faithfulness does not guarantee deliverance.

In this temporal world, you may be delivered. You may not. And yet still the core of Jesus is faithfulness. Faithfulness to him, choice of not bowing down despite the temptation and even with the threat. We get to walk that journey constantly in this world, and John paints a picture of ways in which we will constantly be walking.

That the beauty of this story is it’s not one person. And one mark forever. It’s constant ways in the which the world invites us. Come and bow down and all will be well, but if you do not, who knows what might happen. Here’s the beautiful reminder in the midst of this, and I love this idea. When I imagine those situations personally, when I imagine times where I or my kids, or my grandkids, or my friends or my loved ones may have to face those difficult situations.

When I imagine times in which they might face temptation, that is hard to resist. When I imagine their fear with a thread of what the future might look like, if they do not bow down, I often imagine that future and Jesus is not present, he’s absent. Here’s the beautiful idea in the text, in our fears for the future.

Jesus is often absent. In his promises. He’s always present. He’s always present. I don’t know what you find yourself facing today. The temptation to bow to something and easy life, more wealth, new possibilities, romantically, all sorts of things that may say, just come this way, despite the fact, it’s not the way for you, I don’t know what you’re fearful of.

Maybe not having enough to provide, maybe being alone, all sorts of things that come to mind right now. Whatever that future looks like, the beautiful promise of Jesus is in the midst of the fire. I am with you always, even to the end of the earth. Jesus from my friends today. Who maybe don’t find themselves in the midst of persecution.

We’d have to be very naive to believe that we are persecuted right now in churches gathering with multimillion dollar buildings and with tens and hundreds of staff and freedom to worship. We’re far from persecuted, but we do face choices all day every day. To bow or not to bow a temptation or a threat.

Help us to face it with the response of faithfulness to you, to your good news. Amen.