This passage is intended to encourage God’s people as they face opposition and persecution. It does so by first of all giving a biblical perspective on history and secondly by showing that persecution belongs to God’s plan for his people.
Read Daniel 11:2-45
This passage teaches the absolute necessary of repentance for salvation. Repentance is a turning from sin to God. It is has to do with our relationship with God, it is necessary for salvation, it is both a gift of God and something that we do, it is an ongoing reality in the Christian life and it is possible because of Jesus saving work.
Read Luke 13:1-3
Daniel is very discouraged by the difficulties that the returned exiles are having in Jerusalem. He is encouraged by an angel who reflects the glory of God, assures Daniel of God’s favor, shows him that prayer has an impact in the spiritual war, and strengthens him.
Read Daniel 10:1 - 11:1
Salvation is received through faith. Faith is both a gift of God and an activity/attitude that we are called to exercise. It involves an belief in the truth claims of the bible, but also a personal trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. The fact that works do not play a role as the basis for salvation means that it is rooted in the grace of God.
Read Ephesians 2:8-9
This passage teaches that the fulfillment of the promise to bring Israel from captivity back to the promised land would eventually include release from the bondage of sin through the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Read Daniel 9:20-27
This passage is a key passage in the biblical teaching on justification by faith. The concepts discussed in the sermon are “a righteousness from God,” “redemption,” “propitiation,” “the justice of God,” and “by faith apart from the law.”
Read Romans 3:21-31
This passage provides us with instruction about prayer. The fact that Daniel prays for something that God had promised gives us insight into the relationship between prayer and the plan of God. Daniel’s prayer shows us the importance of having a Biblical understanding of the God to whom we pray, confession of sin and asking for forgiveness and praying for the glory of God.
Read Daniel 9:1-19
This sermon examines the teaching of this passage that believers have been made alive with Christ. In the light of the biblical story of redemption this granting of new life must be seen as part of the beginning of the renewal of the cosmos. The reason that believers are made alive with Christ is that they are united to Christ. Other passages show that this union with Christ happens through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Read Ephesians 2:4-7
This vision centers on a period of extreme persecution of God’s people that would take place in the future. The point of this vision is that God is in control even when his people must go through persecution. It also teaches that the persecution will last only as long as God permits and that in the end the persecutors of God’s people will be punished. Daniel’s response to the vision reminds us that we are called to show concern for brothers and sisters who are being persecuted today.
Read Daniel 8:1-27
This second sermon of the series consider a another part of the biblical teaching about human sin and that is the fact that apart from salvation humans have a sinful nature. In this passage the key point is that apart from God’s saving grace, everyone is dead in transgressions and sins. This condition is described with reference to the world, the devil and our own sinful nature. The verses that follow this text show how God brings dead sinners to life with Christ.
Read Ephesians 2:1-3
