Sermons

This is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. Daniel in the lions’ den.

It’s a story that fascinates, captures the imagination. Children love it, because it’s about lions, loins that roar. Adults love it, because it’s a story extremely well told, and a dramatic rescue miracle.

But it can be hard to relate to. It’s a good story; it’s entertaining. But how does a one-off, miraculous rescue of hero named Daniel speak to the lives of ordinary Christians like us?

They say that wise people learn from their mistakes. And really wise people learn from the mistakes of other people, without having to make them themselves.

Today, we come to one of the great cautionary tales in the Bible, Belshazzar’s banquet. It’s in the Bible so that we might learn from Belshazzar’s mistake. We’re going to look at what his mistake was, and what we need to learn if we are to avoid repeating it.

Personal testimony can be very powerful.

We’re motivated by the stories of brave men and women, who have struggled against the odds, and come through.

As Christians, we have Christian testimony. It’s good to hear Christian men and women tell stories of their God. As they’ve battled through illness, unemployment, addiction, personal sin, they can look back and testify how God helped them, sustained them, got them through.

Have you ever felt the pressure to compromise? To compromise your principals? Above all, to compromise your identity as a Christian, to compromise your relationship with God?

I’m sure many of us have. How do you resist? How do you remain faithful?

You’ve worked for your employer for years. Long hours. Turned away other offers. They call you in. From now on, they take priority over everything else in your life. It doesn’t matter what promises you’ve made to your family or your church; regularly drop everything for the company.

The more reliably you know the future, you more accurately you can plan in the present.

If you know what weather we’ll get here next summer, you can decide whether to save up to try and go abroad.

One decision many of us have taken is to go through life trusting the person of Jesus. We’ve done that, not knowing what tomorrow will bring. When we get to the future, will we be glad we did so? As we look back on now, will we see trusting the person of Jesus as a wise move, or not?

Immigration is one of the biggest challenges for our nation. What kind of welcome do we give those from other lands? How many can we welcome? And the big question: How do they fit in? How do they integrate into life here?

One option is to form a ghetto. They don’t integrate. You get a section of a town or city where the majority are from a particular cultural background.

Here’s the question: Have Jon and Hannah just done something marvellous, or something mad, in having Eben baptised?

He will grow up in a very different world from the one I grew up in. Christians are less welcome in modern Britain than they used to be. Well, it’s fine to be a Christian, provided you keep your views to yourself. But insist on speaking about Jesus — even more, if you insist on seeking to influence society based on the teaching of Jesus — you’ll find you’re less and less welcome.

How do you keep speaking about Jesus when you’re persecuted for doing so?

Assume for the moment that you want to share the good news about Jesus, how do you keep doing so if you’re threatened, or silenced in other ways?

That may not be the question some of you are asking. Some of you may be wondering: “Why would I want to tell other people about Jesus at all?” We’ll answer that question as well. If we come up with some good reasons to keep talking about him when it’s costly, those will also be good reasons to start talking about him.

Sadly, we live in a world that is full of pain and suffering.

It’s easy to feel powerless to help. Even if we wanted to alleviate everyone’s pain, we just don’t have the resources to help more than a few people. We resonate with Peter’s words from that reading: “Silver and gold I do not have.”

The government also does not have the resource to help everyone who is in need. You could print Acts chapter 3 verse 6 and display it above every hospital reception desk: “Silver and gold have I none”.

You only have to look at the news to see ways in which society is broken.

There are deep levels of mistrust, hatred, resentment and racism. People are lost, unsure of their purpose in life. Many are angry. Many are bored. Many are lonely.

Jesus did not just come to mend broken people. He came to mend broken society, to build a new society, one which functions in a healthy way, one which is deeply attractive, one which we’d all like to be a part of.