Prelude
Call to Worship 1 Timothy 1:17
Hymn JBC # 61 Mourning has broken like the first morning
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 240 Jesus Christ is risen today
Offering
Testimony
Scripture Daniel 3:1～18
Prayer
Sermon “Even if he does not”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 86 O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
God is the one whose figure we cannot see with our own eyes. However, Christians believe that the God the Bible tells, the God of Jesus Christ surely exists.
Faith is to believe in the God who can’t be seen by our eyes.
We often hear people say, “I would believe in God if I could see Him with my own eyes”. However, if we could always see a god, could we say that that is the One True God?
In other words, those who say they “would believe in God if [they] could see Him with [their] own two eyes” have more faith in their own eyes than God. In other words, they believe in themselves more than they believe in God.
The human eye is so sophisticated, that at times we can purposefully see what we want to see/interpret, in the way we want to see things.
Because of this, if we ground ourselves only in what we can perceive with our eyes, it is not possible to know (to believe) in the One True God.
In Chapter 11 of the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, the following is written.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
The assurance in the unseen reality (things we do not see) is a crucial point here. If we are able to have assurance about what we do not see, then the power that allows us to believe must come from outside of us.
The power to believe in the God of the Bible, that is Jesus Christ, does not lie inside of us, ourselves. The thought or power to believe in Jesus Christ as God is a gift given from the Lord God.
Because of this, it is impossible for us to completely explain “why we believe in God” logically or rationally so that everyone can understand it.
It is not by reasoning (not that there is any need to stop employing logic) but by the power of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we can believe in the God of Jesus Christ as conveyed in the Bible as the One True God.
However, sometimes the thought of believing in an unseen God and being unable to fully explain this with words gives people anxiety and uncertainty. Even Christians experience times of doubt wondering “is God really there?”.
In order to dispel this uncertainty, various peoples throughout history have sought to make the invisible God visible and in so doing reassure themselves.
And God knew well of this human tendency (that is to create idols and worship them) from the beginning.
In Chapter 20 of “Exodus” in the Old Testament, God gives Moses the ten commandments as very important laws for the people of Israel to abide by.
The first commandment given is “You shall have no other gods before Me”. (Exodus 20:3)
And the second commandment is “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” (Exodus 20:4-5)
However, the Israelites shaped materials into an idol and worshipped it (as God), and committed this sin of “idol worship” repeatedly.
The sin of idol worship is one that we can commit even now if we are not careful. Even unknown to ourselves, if we put something other than God in God’s rightful place (as the most important thing) in our hearts, we may indeed be worshipping that thing as God.
No matter how admirable a person may be in any respect, even if they are a leader, and no matter how great some ideas and ideals may be, ultimately these are people, or things that a person has made (or thought up), and all people, philosophies and beliefs have shortcomings.
These things do not last forever. What people make has errors and mistakes and are certainly limited.
To prevent us from unwittingly worshipping people or the works of their hands or minds in place of God, we must be led always by the Word of the Bible, and I hope that we may constantly receive guidance from God through prayer and His Word (that is The Bible).
Today’s Bible verse is a story from the book of “Daniel” in the Old Testament. Here we see the appearance of a King called King Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar was the King of the Babylonian Empire. At that time, Israel was destroyed by Babylon, and many Israelites were taken into captivity and made to come to Babylon.
In today’s verse, this King Nebuchadnezzar made a single gold statue. It was said to be pure gold and 60 cubits tall, and 6 cubits wide. (1 cubit was roughly 45 centimeters, so 60 cubits = 27 meters, 6 cubits = 2.7 meters)
Then Nebuchadnezzar made a decree that all people were to bow down and worship this gold statue. That means that Nebuchadnezzar declared that the statue is the God.
In today's passage, the king gathered the high officials of the nation (mentioned in verse 2) for the unveiling ceremony of the statue (verse 2). And the herald proclaimed with great power:
Daniel 3:4～6
4 “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
We can tell that the gold statue Nebuchadnezzar built was impossible to be the true God (that is needless to say, though) from at least the following two points.
Firstly, God is not a statue that can be seen, neither is he created by human hands. Therefore this manmade statue cannot be the true God.
Then the other point is that the true God is not of the character to “immediately throw into a blazing furnace (fire)” anyone who does not believe in Him.
God does not forcibly make us take up faith, but with love and patience, He so patiently waits for us to open our hearts and believe in Him.
Isaiah 30:8 says:
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
God is still patiently waiting for us to return to the true God, to rely only on Him, and to live by faith in Him, not on people or things that can be seen.
God does not force us to believe in God, but rather waits for people to return to God, even if it takes time, through the words of the Bible, the work of us, the church and believers, and various other things.
Let us give thanks because of such great mercy and patience of God.
Following Nebuchadnezzar's command, as soon as the people heard the music from the instruments, they all bowed down to the gold image.
However, among the Jews who had been brought from Israel to Babylon at that time, there were some who did not worship the gold image at all.
They were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (whose original Jewish names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah); three Jews who had been promoted to become governors in Babylon (2:49).
When King Nebuchadnezzar heard that the three men had disobeyed the king's orders and had not worshipped the golden statue, he was furious and summoned the men to question them.
Then the king told the three men clearly in his own words, "But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered like this (verse 16-18)
“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 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. 18 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.”
I will repeat verse 17-18.
17 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. 18 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.”
“But even if He does not (even if God does not save us from the blazing furnace) we shall not worship anything other than God.” This is an incredible faith that challenges our idea of how deep faith in God can go.
These words may be even said to be the pinnacle of a believer’s faith.
So are we here praising the strong faith of the three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?
Is the message that we should receive today “let us have strong faith like these three that is unmovable under any strain”?
Of course, that maybe one reading of this message. However in that interpretation, with one misstep, there is a real risk that we may see the faith of these three as a special faith and even fall into making three of them as idols.
Rather than focusing on “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego having strong faith”, today I would like to focus our attention on a truth in the words they said.
That is a truth that the phrase “even if He does not” demonstrates. That even if God does not rescue us from the blazing furnace as we should wish (as we should see), this True God is certainly with us.
Our God is a Great God, the Great God who surpasses our conception and understanding. We are unable to grasp the entirety of the plan of the Lord God Almighty.
However, even so, God is there. God is with us, and in the midst of our struggles, pains and troubles. This is the unchanging message of the Bible.
At the beginning we listened to the verse-reading from the letter to the Hebrews that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
“The God who does not give us the way we desire” and “the God who does not save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace” is truly an invisible God (a God who does not necessarily act as we wish Him to do).
This story continues with the conclusion that even in the intense furnace, those three were not allowed to be consumed by the flames.
However for these three people continues to teach us that “even if” He (did) not prevent that, God is there, even if He does not do exactly according to what and how we ask Him, the Lord knows what is the best path for us”.
For us also, we sometimes wonder “if there really is a God, then how can these cruel things happen in the world, or in my life?”
Even if we do not have an answer to that question that satisfies us 100% and we understand completely, we are able to receive the certain hope from the Bible that “even so God is there; Our God who loves us as to give up His own life for us on the cross is certainly there for us.”
The One True God, who is unchanging yesterday, today and tomorrow, that certain God of ours. This week, too, let us live in His hope which sustains us.
Scripture Daniel 3:1～18
Prayer
Sermon “Even if he does not”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 86 O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude
God is the one whose figure we cannot see with our own eyes. However, Christians believe that the God the Bible tells, the God of Jesus Christ surely exists.
Faith is to believe in the God who can’t be seen by our eyes.
We often hear people say, “I would believe in God if I could see Him with my own eyes”. However, if we could always see a god, could we say that that is the One True God?
In other words, those who say they “would believe in God if [they] could see Him with [their] own two eyes” have more faith in their own eyes than God. In other words, they believe in themselves more than they believe in God.
The human eye is so sophisticated, that at times we can purposefully see what we want to see/interpret, in the way we want to see things.
Because of this, if we ground ourselves only in what we can perceive with our eyes, it is not possible to know (to believe) in the One True God.
In Chapter 11 of the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, the following is written.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
The assurance in the unseen reality (things we do not see) is a crucial point here. If we are able to have assurance about what we do not see, then the power that allows us to believe must come from outside of us.
The power to believe in the God of the Bible, that is Jesus Christ, does not lie inside of us, ourselves. The thought or power to believe in Jesus Christ as God is a gift given from the Lord God.
Because of this, it is impossible for us to completely explain “why we believe in God” logically or rationally so that everyone can understand it.
It is not by reasoning (not that there is any need to stop employing logic) but by the power of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we can believe in the God of Jesus Christ as conveyed in the Bible as the One True God.
However, sometimes the thought of believing in an unseen God and being unable to fully explain this with words gives people anxiety and uncertainty. Even Christians experience times of doubt wondering “is God really there?”.
In order to dispel this uncertainty, various peoples throughout history have sought to make the invisible God visible and in so doing reassure themselves.
And God knew well of this human tendency (that is to create idols and worship them) from the beginning.
In Chapter 20 of “Exodus” in the Old Testament, God gives Moses the ten commandments as very important laws for the people of Israel to abide by.
The first commandment given is “You shall have no other gods before Me”. (Exodus 20:3)
And the second commandment is “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” (Exodus 20:4-5)
However, the Israelites shaped materials into an idol and worshipped it (as God), and committed this sin of “idol worship” repeatedly.
The sin of idol worship is one that we can commit even now if we are not careful. Even unknown to ourselves, if we put something other than God in God’s rightful place (as the most important thing) in our hearts, we may indeed be worshipping that thing as God.
No matter how admirable a person may be in any respect, even if they are a leader, and no matter how great some ideas and ideals may be, ultimately these are people, or things that a person has made (or thought up), and all people, philosophies and beliefs have shortcomings.
These things do not last forever. What people make has errors and mistakes and are certainly limited.
To prevent us from unwittingly worshipping people or the works of their hands or minds in place of God, we must be led always by the Word of the Bible, and I hope that we may constantly receive guidance from God through prayer and His Word (that is The Bible).
Today’s Bible verse is a story from the book of “Daniel” in the Old Testament. Here we see the appearance of a King called King Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar was the King of the Babylonian Empire. At that time, Israel was destroyed by Babylon, and many Israelites were taken into captivity and made to come to Babylon.
In today’s verse, this King Nebuchadnezzar made a single gold statue. It was said to be pure gold and 60 cubits tall, and 6 cubits wide. (1 cubit was roughly 45 centimeters, so 60 cubits = 27 meters, 6 cubits = 2.7 meters)
Then Nebuchadnezzar made a decree that all people were to bow down and worship this gold statue. That means that Nebuchadnezzar declared that the statue is the God.
In today's passage, the king gathered the high officials of the nation (mentioned in verse 2) for the unveiling ceremony of the statue (verse 2). And the herald proclaimed with great power:
Daniel 3:4～6
4 “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
We can tell that the gold statue Nebuchadnezzar built was impossible to be the true God (that is needless to say, though) from at least the following two points.
Firstly, God is not a statue that can be seen, neither is he created by human hands. Therefore this manmade statue cannot be the true God.
Then the other point is that the true God is not of the character to “immediately throw into a blazing furnace (fire)” anyone who does not believe in Him.
God does not forcibly make us take up faith, but with love and patience, He so patiently waits for us to open our hearts and believe in Him.
Isaiah 30:8 says:
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
God is still patiently waiting for us to return to the true God, to rely only on Him, and to live by faith in Him, not on people or things that can be seen.
God does not force us to believe in God, but rather waits for people to return to God, even if it takes time, through the words of the Bible, the work of us, the church and believers, and various other things.
Let us give thanks because of such great mercy and patience of God.
Following Nebuchadnezzar's command, as soon as the people heard the music from the instruments, they all bowed down to the gold image.
However, among the Jews who had been brought from Israel to Babylon at that time, there were some who did not worship the gold image at all.
They were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (whose original Jewish names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah); three Jews who had been promoted to become governors in Babylon (2:49).
When King Nebuchadnezzar heard that the three men had disobeyed the king's orders and had not worshipped the golden statue, he was furious and summoned the men to question them.
Then the king told the three men clearly in his own words, "But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered like this (verse 16-18)
“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 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. 18 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.”
I will repeat verse 17-18.
17 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. 18 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.”
“But even if He does not (even if God does not save us from the blazing furnace) we shall not worship anything other than God.” This is an incredible faith that challenges our idea of how deep faith in God can go.
These words may be even said to be the pinnacle of a believer’s faith.
So are we here praising the strong faith of the three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?
Is the message that we should receive today “let us have strong faith like these three that is unmovable under any strain”?
Of course, that maybe one reading of this message. However in that interpretation, with one misstep, there is a real risk that we may see the faith of these three as a special faith and even fall into making three of them as idols.
Rather than focusing on “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego having strong faith”, today I would like to focus our attention on a truth in the words they said.
That is a truth that the phrase “even if He does not” demonstrates. That even if God does not rescue us from the blazing furnace as we should wish (as we should see), this True God is certainly with us.
Our God is a Great God, the Great God who surpasses our conception and understanding. We are unable to grasp the entirety of the plan of the Lord God Almighty.
However, even so, God is there. God is with us, and in the midst of our struggles, pains and troubles. This is the unchanging message of the Bible.
At the beginning we listened to the verse-reading from the letter to the Hebrews that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
“The God who does not give us the way we desire” and “the God who does not save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace” is truly an invisible God (a God who does not necessarily act as we wish Him to do).
This story continues with the conclusion that even in the intense furnace, those three were not allowed to be consumed by the flames.
However for these three people continues to teach us that “even if” He (did) not prevent that, God is there, even if He does not do exactly according to what and how we ask Him, the Lord knows what is the best path for us”.
For us also, we sometimes wonder “if there really is a God, then how can these cruel things happen in the world, or in my life?”
Even if we do not have an answer to that question that satisfies us 100% and we understand completely, we are able to receive the certain hope from the Bible that “even so God is there; Our God who loves us as to give up His own life for us on the cross is certainly there for us.”
The One True God, who is unchanging yesterday, today and tomorrow, that certain God of ours. This week, too, let us live in His hope which sustains us.
