One night during the 2nd year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had very disturbing dream.
It wasn’t the dream that so many people have – with the feeling of falling, or hovering outside their body.
It wasn’t the dream of going to church, work or school wearing only pajamas.
And it wasn’t a scarey dream with terrible monsters chasing the dreamer.
That dream will come up later in the Book of Daniel, but it won’t belong to Nebuchadnezzar.
I don’t think that if I had the dream of Daniel 2 that I would do anything more than laugh about it;
That is, if I was able to remember it at all.
But perhaps it was because Nebuchadnezzar was king of world that this really disturbed him.
He might have seen this dream as he should have seen it – a threat to his world dominance.
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Daniel correctly interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
“Following your kingdom, and several others which will follow, the God of Heaven, Jehovah will destroy all the kingdoms of men and establish a new dominion.
It will be unlike anything before it.
It will be an eternal Kingdom; a Kingdom made without human hands.
It will be a kingdom as real as your own, but it will be as much spiritual as it will be physical.”
Nebuchadnezzar was so impressed with Daniel’s answer, that he made him ruler over the province of Babylon.
Not only was Daniel able to give a satisfactory explanation and interpretation,
the fact that Daniel even knew which dream to interpret, proved that this was entirely of God.
And as Moses said, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
And now we jump forward about 650 years and into a good-sized house in the city of Rome.
There was a Bible conference going on – perhaps the first annual Bible conference of the Calvary Baptist Church of Rome.
And the unofficial theme of this particular meeting was the Kingdom of which Nebuchadnezzar dreamed.
The Lord was revealing to those people, and somewhat to us their children, what that Kingdom is all about.
There was only one speaker at this conference, Paul, the Apostle of God, but the crowd was rather large.
There may have been lectures and sermons – along with some question and answer sessions.
For those of you who like such things: I draw your attention to the word “appointed.”
When Paul first met with the leaders of the Roman Jewish community, they “appointed him a day” when he could interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to them.
The Greek word translated “appointed” is “tasso,” and it’s found 8 times in the Greek New Testament.
One such place is Acts 13:48 – “And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ORDAINED to eternal life believed.”
Those who were “appointed” to eternal life believed.
As I have said many times, the Kingdom of God, is a rather large, multifaceted subject.
But if you stop and think about it the principle behind it is rather simple:
A kingdom may be likened to a country, any country, except that a kingdom is ruled by a king.
A kingdom, or at least this kingdom, doesn’t have a legislature to pass laws;
It doesn’t have a congress or a senate.
It might be argued that it is not a republic, because will not be so much a rule of law as it will be the rule of the Law-giver.
This kingdom doesn’t even have to have land and territory, because it can be a kingdom of hearts.
And the King of the kingdom which Paul was preaching is Jehovah.
These are really quite simple precepts.
But as we move through the Bible, we find that the Kingdom of God is described in a variety of ways.
Confining our thoughts to the New Testament:
Although “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before the Pharisees and Sadducees.
And yet we “must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
And yet other scriptures seem to suggest that this kingdom is STILL FUTURE.
“This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
This leaves the impression that the Kingdom of God was still somehow future.
For example, to Nicodemus the Saviour said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Apparently people must be born again before they can become citizens of the Kingdom of God.
And “when they BELIEVED Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
What exactly was it that Philip was preaching to the Samaritans?
Then he moved to the school of Tyrannus and preached the same message for another two years.
Wasn’t it the gospel as we know it and love it?
Wasn’t it the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our salvation?
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone PREACHING THE KINGDOM OF GOD, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”
Christ Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Jesus is the Messiah, the One Who will rule all the world during the Millennial Kingdom.
But He is also the One Who sovereignly controls all things as He wishes even today.
Jesus Christ is the Saviour, before whom we all must to bow in repentance and faith.
And no one can be a legal citizen of this Kingdom unless they have been born again – converted –saved.
One day a group of mothers brought their children to the Lord Jesus seeking His prayers for them.
But the disciples unilaterally decided that Jesus was far too busy to have to deal with mothers and babies.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”
The point is this:
Whether you like it or not, you are under the sovereign reign of Jehovah.
You are bound to all His laws, one of which says that the wages of sin is death – eternal death.
Despite the fact that everyone is under the Lord’s reign,
The rest, those who will not submit themselves to Christ, loving and serving Him, are criminals.
And neither are any of us until we come to Christ at the foot of the cross.
Do you see how the theme of that Roman conference was the common Biblical subject of the King and the Kingdom?
Are you a citizen of Eternal Kingdom of God?
Are you a worshipper and a servant of Jesus Christ?
Do you love Him and long to see His face?
Do you earnestly strive to do His will in every aspect of your life?
Or are you a criminal, still in your sins and doomed to the Lake of Fire?
Are you absolutely sure of these things?
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus,
both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.”
Luke tells us that Paul spent that day expounding, testifying and persuading the people of his nation to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
For over 2½ years now we have been studying the Book of Acts.
I am not so egotistical to realize that no one has become bored & that some are looking forward to change.
This has been an expository study of the Book of Acts.
What he did was to take scriptures like Daniel 2 and to slowly and thoroughly bring out its meaning.
He was turning it inside out, not in order to confuse people or bore them, but for just the opposite reason.
He wanted them to understand, as much as possible, what the Bible was saying.
I can’t tell you if he developed a series of three point messages, as I have tried to do,
but he exploded, expounded and exposed the meaning of the Old Testament scriptures
so that his visitors could see the Christ Jesus is the King of the Kingdom.
This interesting word “peitho” ( pi’-tho ) is quite common.
Most of the time it is translated “persuade” just as we have it here.
But the next most common translation is “trust” and then “obey” and then “to have confidence,” and “to believe.”
In other words, Paul was exposing the Word of God with the purpose of persuading this listeners to believe, trust and to obey the King of the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was taking the Law of Moses, and by that I don’t mean just the Ten Commandments . . .
And he was taking Isaiah and Daniel, Jeremiah and even the Psalms . . .
And proving that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and Messiah the King.
because, “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
And then he undoubtedly took information that many of them already had to show that JESUS OF NAZARETH is that Christ – that King.
You can be sure that he did his best to persuade them to trust Christ, to pledge their allegiance to Him, and to obey Jesus’ command to repent of their sins before God.
This is still the responsibility and the work of the gospel preacher today; he is still a preacher of the Kingdom.
Is Christ Jesus YOUR Saviour?
Is Christ Jesus YOUR King?
Can you prove it by your life as well as your theology?
The third word that Luke used to describe Paul’s ministry during that Bible conference was “testify.”
Although there is a little more to the word, it basically means to make a statement based on personal experience.
I can just about guarantee that at some point during that day, Paul described how he first met the King.
For months he had been filled with fury against Jesus’ disciples in Jerusalem,
and when he had pretty-well driven them underground, he turned his attentions elsewhere.
Then with authority from the chief priest he headed toward Damascus to arrest the heretics there.
But just before he reached the city, the Lord reached down and knocked him to the ground.
And he would also have told those people how his hate-filled heart was miraculously and instantaneously changed into a heart of obedience and surrender.
His was a heart of stone that became one of love and devotion to the Lord Jesus.
He the testified of what he knew to be true in his own heart,
and he did his best to persuade those people to join him in his allegiance to the King of Kings.
This is what the work of today’s ministry should be all about.
This should be the purpose of our church and our church services.
It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit persuade you of these things.
Have you been born again?
Is Jesus Christ the sovereign ruler of your life?