Who Are You | Light of the World - Daniel 12 | December 1

INTRO

Hey Family!

We are just a month away from Christmas!

Isn’t that crazy?

The year has absolutely flown by.

And today, we find ourselves in the last chapter of the book of Daniel. One more crazy fevered dream and we’ll be done.

It’s funny, I think of the Adam Sandler song about Hanukkah. You know the one, “Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights. Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights!”

You know what is even more interesting? Hanukkah is a celebration that reminds us a lot of these visions of Daniel.

The story of Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabeean revolt against the Seleucid Empire. The revolt was sparked by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, that name should sound familiar now. The revolt was sparked by Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawing Jewish practices and desecrating the Temple.

After their victory, the Maccabees cleansed the Temple, rededicated it, and claimed to witness a miracle. When the Maccabees entered the Temple, they found a small container of oil that was only enough to light the menorah for one night. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days, which is how long it took to rededicate the Temple and get new oil.

Hanukkah, meaning "dedication" in Hebrew, is celebrated for eight days by lighting candles in a menorah to honor this miracle.

You may be familiar with another Hanukkah classic, the Dreidel Song. The dreidel is a toy with four sides, each inscribed with a Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, hey, and shin. The letters form an acronym for a Hebrew phrase which translates to "a great miracle happened there".

Hanukkah honors the miracle of light during a time of oppression.

As you may know, there are other holidays and other traditions which we celebrate and observe during this season.

None of you probably celebrate Hanukkah, but I know many of you observe Advent. And I’m pretty sure we’ll all join in for Christmas, though admittedly to differing degrees.

Advent anticipates the light of Christ entering the world to overcome its deepest darkness.

Hanukkah is the celebration of the light emerging from a dark time in which God’s people weren’t allowed to worship.

Christmas is the celebration of the light of the world entering into the darkness of our own sin in order to make us children of the light.

Together, they reveal a shared spiritual truth: the light of God’s presence brings hope, transformation, and the promise that darkness will never prevail.

The times may be evil and are only going to get worse. But the light of the world has come. "[We who are] walking in darkness have seen a great light; on [us who live] in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned". (Isaiah 9:2, Matthew 4:16)

Jesus is the light of the world.

THE SON OF GOD

What I want to do is look at two more identities of Jesus. Two more ways that Jesus refers to Himself before we come back to this last chapter of Daniel and see how that affects our identity as His beloved children.

Two claims of Jesus.

John 10. Verse 22.

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

Did you catch when this is taking place? What’s going on when Jesus is having this interaction and making this claim?

It says, “22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter…”

It’s Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. Jesus is celebrating Hanukkah in Jerusalem.

This is not mere coincidence. The Bible is a collection of absolute brilliance and hardly anything seems to be done by accident. But it is also not our focus in this section.

Jesus claims to be the “Son of God”.

Although he doesn’t really say it like that. I mean He does in the sense that He says that’s what the Jews are saying about Him, which He isn’t denying, and rather agreeing to Himself. But He doesn’t actually make the declarative statement, “I am the Son of God!” here. Or perhaps He does and it’s not recorded that way.

Here’s how the exchange really goes, “31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him…” and then Jesus says after a bit, “36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”

Maybe this is the first recorded instance of the Mandela Effect.

The Mandela Effect is a social phenomenon where a large group of people misremember a detail or event. The term was coined after this lady discovered that many people shared her false memory that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 80s. In reality, Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and became the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and then passed away in 2013.

A classic example of the Mandela Effect is in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). What does Darth Vader confess to Luke?

"Luke, I am your father".

Yes, except that’s not what he says. Darth Vader actually says, "No, I am your father." But for some reason, a lot of people remember it as "Luke, I am your father," and that misquote has stuck in pop culture ever since.

What Jesus actually confesses is “30 I and the Father are one.”

What the Jews here, and what Jesus admits that they understood to be correct is His identity as the “Son of God”.

SON OF GOD IS AN IDENTITY OF DIVINITY

That’s why they pick up stones to kill Him, because “Son of God” is an identity of divinity.

Jesus is making a claim to the divine here, even in His actual words, “30 I and the Father are one.”

Jesus is claiming to be God.

Notice what the Jews say, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

They could not prove any evil work by Jesus! So they try to "cover their tracks" somewhat by saying they were not stoning Him because of His good works, but His "God" words by which He a mere mortal made Himself out to be God. "We're stoning You for Your words not Your works!" They totally missed Jesus' point in John 10:32 that His miracles clearly demonstrated His oneness with His Father.

They would never know how wrong they were. Jesus is not making Himself God but showing He is God by His words and His works which they could not receive because they were showing themselves to not be His sheep.

Jesus wasn’t making Himself God. He was demonstrating that He is God.

Jesus is the Son of God speaks to the divinity of Jesus.

Jesus is God.

John writes at the beginning of his Gospel, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John identifies Jesus as “the one and only Son from the Father”. It clearly identifies Jesus as God’s divine Son. He is a Son unlike any other son of God, and throughout his Gospel John returns to Jesus’s divine nature. Jesus is Yahweh incarnate, who is greater than all things because he came before all things, equal in every way with the Father, which led the Jewish leaders to desire Jesus’s death.

The author of Hebrews writes, “3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.”

Jesus, the Son of God, radiating with the glory of God to bring light to the darkest reaches of the world. To reach down into your life that light may dawn.

SON OF GOD IS AN IDENTITY OF HUMANITY

The “Son of God” is a clear statement of Jesus’ eternal sonship and His deity.

But that’s not the only way “Son of God” is used.

Jesus as the Son of God also speaks to His humanity and His purpose.

The title “Son of God” is given to others throughout the Bible, to those who manifest obedience to the Father. We are called the sons of God. We are given sonship.

Sonship is defined predominantly, not in biological terms, but in terms of being in one accord or submissive towards. It is a title that not only speaks to identity but also purpose.

D. A. Carson explains how this “Christological title” has been “often overlooked, but demonstrates how “son of” is not just positional, beloved in the family, but often vocational.

It’s about what you do.

Your father defines your work.

More specifically, Christ himself receives the title “Son of God” in the sense that he fulfills the role of Adam, Israel, and David, being a covenant mediator who supersedes these previous “sons of God”.

Jesus is the One Whom His Father had set apart and sent on mission into the world to redeem those dead in their trespasses and sins. He set Jesus apart for a mission, to redeem the lost world. He sent Him into the world as One Who was fully Man, yet the only Son of God that He might be the sacrifice for sins of man.

Jesus the light of the world, the Son of God.

THE SON OF MAN

But there’s another title that you may be equally familiar with.

It is actually the primary title Jesus used when referring to Himself. He looks back to Daniel and calls Himself the Son of Man.

The Son of Man who takes away the sins of the world. The Son of Man who has come to seek and save the lost. The Son of Man who came to serve and not be served. The Son of Man, full of glory, who has the power to forgive sins. The Son of Man who is coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Jesus is referred to as the “Son of Man” 82 times in the New Testament. The only use of Son of Man in a clear reference to Jesus, spoken by someone other than Jesus, came from the lips of Stephen as he was being martyred.

This title, “Son of Man,” is the one I want you to really pay attention to, because it’s used so often in the New Testament, and it almost exclusively comes from the lips of Jesus Himself. And it refers back to the Old Testament visions of Daniel, where Daniel had a vision into the interior of the heavenly court of God, where he saw the Ancient of Days enthroned, and the judgment was set. And to the Ancient of Days comes “one like unto a son of man,” who then is given the authority to judge the world.

Since we read some of Matthew chapter 24 and 25 last week, why don’t we read a bit of chapter 26 this week? Another account akin to John chapter 10, where the people are not too happy to hear what Jesus has to say about Himself.

It says in Matthew 26:57-66, “57 Then the people who had arrested Jesus led him to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of religious law and the elders had gathered. 58 Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and came to the high priest’s courtyard. He went in and sat with the guards and waited to see how it would all end.

59 Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus, so they could put him to death. 60 But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone’s testimony. Finally, two men came forward 61 who declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” 63 But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

64 Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

65 Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Blasphemy! Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your verdict?”

“Guilty!” they shouted. “He deserves to die!”

SON OF MAN IS AN IDENTITY OF HUMANITY

Strikingly enough, this title speaks the same volumes of Jesus’ identity and character as the last.

Son of Man is a title of humanity. Other titles for Christ, such as Son of God, may be more overt in their focus on His deity, though it also speaks of His humanity as we just saw. Son of Man, focuses on the humanity of Christ.

God called the prophet Ezekiel “son of man” 93 times. In this way, God was simply calling Ezekiel a human being. Son of man is simply a synonymous term for “human.” Jesus Christ was truly a human being. He came “in the flesh”.

Son of Man is a title of humility. The Second Person of the Trinity, eternal in nature, left heaven’s glory and took on human flesh, becoming the Son of Man, born in a manger and “despised and rejected by mankind”. The Son of Man had “no place to lay his head”. The Son of Man ate and drank with sinners. The Son of Man suffered at the hands of men. This intentional lowering of His status from King of Heaven to Son of Man is the epitome of humility in His humanity.

Philippians 2:6–8 says (we may hear this verse again over these weeks to come), “6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, fully human.

God made Himself nothing and came to us.

That’s the heart of the Gospel. It’s not that we try to live our best life so that we can go be with Him. It’s that He has come to us and met us in the thickness of our darkness so that we get to be with Him right now, through the thick of it. Jesus is with you even now. In your darkest day, He is here. That’s the beauty of the Gospel.

And Paul tells us in Philippians that we have to have that same approach to life. “5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” Don’t make yourself into your God, chasing after your will and desire. Conversely that’s what humanity has been doing since the garden.

Rather, make yourself nothing. Anybody want to raise their hand and volunteer to be nothing? In our humanity, humbling ourselves to serve others in obedience to Christ so that through us He may be glorified.

Because, although His humanity is part of the story, it’s not the fullness of the story,

Philippians goes on, “9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

That’s because “Son of Man” is also not just an identity of Jesus’ humanity.

f Man is a title of deity. It too speaks to the divinity of Jesus.

Ezekiel may have been a son of man, but Jesus is the Son of Man.

Jesus is the supreme example of all that God intended mankind to be, the embodiment of truth and grace. In Him “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”. For this reason, the Son of Man was able to forgive sins. The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. The Son of Man came to save lives, rise from the dead, and execute judgment.

And that’s the funny thing about this passage in Matthew, if you could say there was anything funny here at all. The religious leaders believe Jesus is the one being judged, but He is the Judge. They believe they are judging Him, all the while they don’t even know. They don’t even have a clue.

That’s what makes this statement of Jesus so powerful, and so infuriating to those listening.

At His trial before the high priest, Jesus said, “I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). And they immediately accused Jesus of blasphemy and condemned Him to death.

Because you see, Jesus sitting on the throne is a picture of judgement and they understood what He was saying. He is saying I am the King and I have already judged you and found you wanting. You don’t measure up.

It’s not the same thing He’ll say to us. We’ll see Jesus as Stephen did, standing and welcoming us in with open arms. We who have faith and believe. “56 [Stephen] told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” 57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting…”

You see the difference in these images?

Son of Man is a fulfillment of prophecy. Daniel saw glory, worship, and an everlasting kingdom given to the Messiah. To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

The Son of Man is a heavenly person—a heavenly person who descends to this world, whose principal role in His visitation to this earth is that of the heavenly judge. And then He returns to the presence of God in His ascension. We tend to only think that Jesus’ calling Himself the Son of Man was an expression of His humanity, His humility. It was a claim to divine authority. This is a highly exalted title.

JESUS - LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Jesus.

The Son of God.

The Son of Man.

The light of the world.

That’s what we encounter here as we conclude our time in the book of Daniel. Daniel’s not writing so that we may know when is the end.

Verse 4 says, “4 But you, Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret; seal up the book until the time of the end, when many will rush here and there, and knowledge will increase.”

And again verse 8, “8 I heard what he said, but I did not understand what he meant.”

It’s a hidden secret to be discovered only at the end of time and not in the midst of it.

Daniel’s writing so that we may know God.

Verse 10, “10 Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means… 12 Blessed are those who wait and remain until the end…”

Daniel’s writing so that we may have hope because… the times are evil and they will only get worse.

Verse 1, “Then there will be a time of anguish greater than any since nations first came into existence.”

But the Son of Man will come. The Son of God. The Light will dawn.

And the Saints will inherit the Kingdom.

“13 “As for you, go your way until the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you.”

“2 Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace. 3 Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever.”

What we’ve been talking about through the book of Daniel is identity. Answering the question, who are you? Knowing that if you know who God is, you will know who you are, and you will know what to do, you will know your purpose.

Satan's number one goal is to make you forget who you are in Christ and why you exist your identify and purpose - you are a beloved child of God who is here to make disciples (to help others see their real identity and purpose).

How many countless names are there of believers who fell away when it no longer became advantageous to be a christian, it no longer benefited them, in fact it only cost them – greatly…

Let’s go back to that thought at the beginning. Jesus made sure he was in Jerusalem during Hanukkah. He who was called “the Light of the World” in celebration of hope and justice against the dark pervasive tyranny that existed in those evil days. He told His followers that they themselves were the “light of the world” and should not be hidden away but to be like a lamp stand – a menorah, a candle. He told us, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5).

During this season, let’s be lights in the midst of darkness. With all the evil, division, oppression and injustice that takes place in this world, it’s important that those who celebrate the lights of this season become the lights of this season for those around us who desperately need light in their darkness.