Bible Passage: Daniel 12:1-3
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: November 14, 2021

Bulletin November 14, 2021

Daniel 12:1-3

¹Then at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands over your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress that has not happened from the first time that there was a nation until that time.

At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. ²Many who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting contempt. ³Those who have insight will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who bring many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.

The Final Triumph of the Saints

1. The saints will endure a time of distress
2. The saints will enjoy eternal glory

Dear fellow redeemed in Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega,

Our opening hymn on this Saints Triumphant Sunday was a hymn called “For All the Saints.” It is a long hymn. We didn’t sing all the verses, but I would like to read for you now one of the verses that we missed:

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave again and arms are strong.

Alleluia! Alleluia! (CW 551:5)

That verse describes believers as soldiers who are engaged in a very long and a very difficult battle. And as the battle rages on and on, our strength might be starting to fade and our courage might be starting to disappear. Perhaps our will to fight is beginning to drain away. But then we hear something. Something catches our ear. You hear that? It’s the triumph song. It’s the song that signals our victory, and it’s sounding far off in the distance. You catch it still faintly, but the melody is unmistakable. And as those sweet notes of that triumph start to resonate in your ears, you sense a new vigor burning in your heart. You feel new vitality pulsing through your limbs. You are strong, and you are brave again, and you are ready to continue the fight as long as the fight must continue.

That’s really what Saints Triumphant Sunday is all about, isn’t it? It’s a sound clip of the final victory song. It’s a glimpse of the brilliant light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a little taste of the triumph that we will enjoy for all eternity, and we need this taste of triumph, don’t we? As soldiers who get weary and who easily become weak, we need this taste of triumph, and our God graciously gives it in his Word. Today, through the prophet Daniel, our Lord tells us about The Final Triumph of the Saints.

Believers at the time of Daniel needed to hear about this triumph. The prophet Daniel lived in the 500s B.C., and in the centuries after his death, there was going to be a time of great distress for Jewish believers who were waiting for the Messiah. In chapter 11 of Daniel, a heavenly messenger told the prophet about a terrible persecution that was going to come. Looking back from our vantage point in history, we can see that this persecution was carried out at the hands of a wicked king named Antiochus IV. Antiochus slaughtered Jews by the thousands. He outlawed the Jewish religion. He put a stop to the twice daily sacrifices at the temple. In fact, Antiochus ordered that the temple itself be used as a place for worshipping Zeus. Many Jews would die and many would fall away from the faith. To endure this persecution, Jewish believers needed to know that in the end a final triumph was waiting for them.

Now, in our time, we need to know the exact same thing, don’t we? We need to know that in the end a final triumph is waiting for us, because the Bible is very clear that the last days of earth will be a very difficult time for the saints. In chapter 12 of Daniel, the heavenly messenger speaks to the prophet about those last days of earth. This is what he says to Daniel: “There will be a time of distress that has not happened from the first time that there was a nation until that time,” [1]. Can you even imagine that? A time of distress that will be greater than any other distress before it? A greater distress than the slavery in Egypt? A greater distress than the Babylonian captivity? A greater distress than the persecution under wicked King Antiochus IV? That’s what we’re told, and it matches what our Savior says when he speaks about the end. Jesus assures us that as we approach the end of the world, false teachers will abound, and they will deceive many people. He assures us that terrible persecution will break out against his Church, and many people will fall away from the faith.

That’s some seriously dire news. If you don’t find that news troubling, you might want to check and see if you still have a pulse. Yet, there is no need to fear. Even in such dark and difficult days, the Lord’s mighty protection will not be absent from his Church. While our text definitely tells us about a terrible time of distress, it also tells us this: “At that time, Michael, the great prince who stands over your people, will arise,” [1]. Michael is one of the angels who is named in the Bible. He is a strong angel, and he is a leader of the angel armies. In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John beholds Michael and the holy angels defeating the devil and his wicked angels in a heavenly battle. This force, this mighty force of light stands on the side of the saints. It is a force more powerful than all the forces of wickedness. If the Lord were to open our eyes, as he once opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant, we would see that those who are with us are more than those who are against us.

Of additional comfort to us, is the fact that the great distress is not going to last forever. It will end, and after all of it is over, there will still be a remnant of believers who have endured. The messenger goes on in his message to Daniel, “At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many who are sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting contempt,” [1,2]. So deliverance is coming, and a resurrection from the dead is coming. The same bodies which God once built from the dust, he will retrieve from the dusty ground. Then he will judge them, and he will send them all to their eternal destinations. Does that thought trouble you? It troubles a lot of people. In fact, I think a lot of people find the judgment more troubling than they find the great distress of the last days.

But the Bible presents the judgment as a day that we Christians long for. When the suffering of the last days comes upon us, the Bible holds out the Day of Judgment as our great hope, not because we are proud of the lives we have lived. Every one of us has done things that are worthy shame and everlasting contempt. Just consider your thoughts and the shame they deserve. What would other people think of you if they knew all the things that have gone on in your head? Yet the deliverance in the end is not reserved only for those who have been sinless in every single thought and word and deed. The deliverance in the end is for those whose names are found written in the book.

“At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book,” [1]. That book is the Book of Life. In Revelation, it is also referred to as the Lamb’s book of life, because it lists those who are finally brought to salvation in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Maybe when you hear Jesus referred to as a Lamb, you remember the words of John the Baptist, when he pointed at Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” [John 1:29]. As a Lamb destined for slaughter, Jesus has carried away every one of your sins, from the shameful actions that are known by everyone around you to the shameful thoughts that are known only to you and to the Savior who has claimed responsibility for them. Maybe when you hear Jesus referred to as a Lamb, you remember the words of Isaiah, who said, “Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers, he did not open his mouth,” [Isaiah 53:7]. So Jesus went willingly to the cross like a silent lamb without a complaint, without a defense. He went willingly and silently to suffer the shame and contempt of the sins of the whole world. All who believe in him will not suffer the shame their sins have deserved. In fact, the Scriptures clearly say, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame,” [Romans 10:11].

Do you believe that Jesus has saved you from your sins? Then be confident that your name is written in the book of life. And if you have doubts, and if you have fears, then consider what your God has done to ensure that you share in his salvation. In Holy Baptism, he marked you as his. He put his name on you, and he put his Spirit within you, and he washed away all of your sins. He has brought you into contact with his powerful Word. Again, today, he has brought you to his house to hear his Word, and he has given you a congregation in which that Word will be proclaimed next Sunday and many other Sundays after that. He has prepared a meal in which he feeds you with the body and the blood of Jesus, so that just as the Israelites were spared from the final plague when they ate the body of the lamb and painted his blood around their doors, you will be spared from the damnation of the wicked. Instead, the last day will bring you deliverance and great glory.

Daniel is told about the everlasting glory of the saints in the last verse of our text, “Those who have insight will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who bring many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever,” [3]. That’s quite a change from the suffering and the sorrow, from the persecution and the hatred that believers will endure in this world. And that should impact the way that we think of our current sufferings. You could be insulted for being a Christian. You could be hated, you could be mistreated, you could even be put to death. But at the great resurrection, all of that will be nothing. Every injury, every insult, every pain and every trouble will vanish like melting snow on a warm spring day. Then we will shine with glory that is never going to end. So we have good reason to patiently endure no matter what trouble may come while this sinful world lasts. And we have good reason to redeem the time that remains, seeking the wisdom of the Scriptures, and leading others to righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. A great and everlasting glory awaits us in the life that is to come. And we will enter that glory just as Christ entered his glory after suffering for a time at the hands of wicked men.

The triumph song is sounding. You can hear it in the Scriptures. And when our Lord returns, we will hear it in full volume and in all its heavenly grandeur. Hold on to faith in Christ, and keep fighting the good fight, for every day brings us nearer to that final day of victory.

Amen.

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