Saints, See Your Triumph Coming!

3rd Sunday of End Time, Saints Triumphant, 11/18/18
Daniel 12:1-3


Saints, See Your Triumph Coming!
I. God defeats your enemy, Satan.
II. God defeats your enemy, Death.


Winning streaks in sports are impressive. The media report them weekly, and they also report when they inevitably come to an end, and then fans shift their attention to the next now-longest winning streak. Fans are impressed by such things.

I’m more impressed on the other end of things: losing streaks. What impresses me is not that a team can establish a losing streak—it’s not that hard to do; just go out there and don’t try to win. What impresses me is that athletes will enter every contest trying to win in the midst of an unimaginable losing streak.

Take the CalTech men’s basketball team for instance. They play Division III NCAA basketball, which is non-scholarship. Beginning in 1985 their team lost 207 consecutive games. 207 consecutive games! But now imagine this: They lost 310 consecutive conference games! For 26 years they lost every conference game they played. In the midst of that losing streak, can you imagine even considering playing basketball for CalTech? If the object of the game is to win, and you’ve lost more than 250 in row, what’s the point? You’d be better off spending your time doing something at which you have much better odds of succeeding.

Being a part of that losing streak must have been demoralizing. How could you find the motivation to keep trying?

I imagine we know that feeling, at least a little. Perhaps a lot. We know what it’s like to keep trying to succeed but not experiencing it. Take a look at what’s happening around us. We’re the Church. We’re God’s people. We’re the ones standing up for what is good and right and fighting against what is evil and wong. But it doesn’t look like we’re winning. And it’s not even a stalemate. It looks like we’re losing! And we have no idea when the tide will turn in our favor. In fact, it looks as if things are going to continue to slide down spiritually as long as we’re alive. Is that how things appear to you at times?

God’s prophet Daniel knew that very thing. Daniel’s God gave him a series of visions of the future which troubled Daniel so much that they made him physically ill. The future looked very dark for God’s people.

But then Daniel saw victory coming—eternal victory—and not just for Daniel, or just for his fellow Jews living at that time, but for all God’s people. For us—you and me.

God’s word calls us saints—people who are holy in God’s eyes by faith in Jesus. Today we celebrate Saints Triumphant. So, look, saints of God! Look with Daniel. Saints, see your triumph coming! Let’s look at it together this morning on the basis of this portion of God’s word.

Part I.

In sports you almost always have an opponent. You certainly do in a military battle. As I mentioned a minute ago, as God’s people, we’re in a constant battle. Do you know who the opponent is? I’m guessing you do; it’s Satan. We’re all familiar with him, but what’s your concept of Satan?

I’m guessing that it won’t surprise you when I say that there’s a tremendous amount of misinformation out there regarding Satan. Here’s one view of Satan. It comes from Elaine Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton University and the author of ¬The Origin of Satan: “I thought of Satan as a kind of joke, a kind of throwaway character.” No surprise there. Professor Pagels doesn’t think Satan exists.

For far too many people, Satan is a mythical character dressed in red underwear and wielding a red pitchfork. He’s viewed as this character of our imagination who sits on our left shoulder, advising us to do what we know is wrong. Is that your concept of Satan?

If not, do you view him as merely a pest to be ignored? An occasional pull in the wrong direction? A desire arising from within, which you know is bad, but seems so good?

Or, is Satan simply some impersonal force in the world? The bad “yang” that balances out the good “yin”?

Daniel would disagree with you. More importantly, so would your God. When you get back home, open your Bible to Daniel 11. First, Daniel sees what evil rulers from various empires will do to God’s people for the next 500 years, especially the Greeks. And every detail of his vision occurred exactly as God showed him. This all happened before Jesus was born.

Then Daniel saw a vision after the Savior had come to this earth. He saw a vision of the antichrist who will wreak havoc in God’s Church upon God’s people. He will wield his hellish power and control vast riches.

But then this: “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.” Daniel saw God’s archangel, Michael, fighting for the Church against whatever forces Satan brought against the Church. And God’s people will be delivered—rescued from Satan’s constant attack. From the rest of Scripture, we know that will happen when the King of kings—Jesus Christ—returns. It occurs individually every time God calls one of his saints home to heaven. It will occur for all God’s people collectively when God consigns Satan to hell and brings all his people—body and soul—into heaven.

Are you tired of losing, people of God? Then saints, see your triumph coming! God defeats your enemy, Satan.

The truth is that Satan, whose name means “enemy,” is real. And the truth is that he wants to destroy you—eternally. And he will use anything and everything to chip away at your faith in Jesus until he attains complete victory over you. The problem is that he’s so good at disguising what he’s doing that we don’t realize it. What is it that tends to draw you away from your Savior, Jesus? Jealousy? Discontentment? Materialism? Greed? Lust? Work? Recreation? Family? And while he daily attempts to claim you as his next victim, he’s wreaking havoc in our world to cause us to despair, to think that either God doesn’t care about the evil going on or he can’t do anything about it. What’s a beleaguered saint, like you and me, to do? Look to Christ, who proclaimed’ “It is finished!” on the cross. The battle for supremacy is over. And his resurrection from the dead three days later proclaims him the Victor. By faith in Jesus, we triumph, too. Ultimately, that will be the case when God puts Satan in his place—hell—forever, never to bother a single saint again. Saints, see your triumph coming!

Part II.

Now that most of the leaves have fallen off of area trees, it’s not so noticeable anymore. I’m talking about the countless ash trees scarring stands of trees that are dead reminders of a force that was unstoppable—a small green worm, the dreaded emerald ash borer. We knew it was coming, and we knew what it would do, but we couldn’t do anything about it.

That reminds me of another unstoppable force—or what appears to be unstoppable. This Sunday is a grim reminder of it—our Christian brothers and sisters who are no longer with us. Death claimed them—one by one. And no matter how far medical science advances, death still marches on, relentlessly, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. How long before it claims you? Me?

Pretty sobering, isn’t it? If only we had the answer, the solution, the power to stop this deadly force!

Lo and behold, we do! In fact, God’s people have had the solution ever since death entered the world through sin. Listen to what Daniel saw, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” Daniel saw you living, even though you die. How so? First, God’s word makes it clear that God has given you real life—spiritual life—through faith in Jesus. You are alive with God in Christ. You live with God now and God lives with you, in a spiritual, but real, way.

Next, you will live forever with Christ. The place and the mode of existence change, but at your death, only your body dies; your soul lives on forever with your Savior, Jesus, in heaven. It’s a life of perfect, unending happiness and bliss.

But there’s more. Daniel saw a vision of the Last Day when Jesus returns, raises all the dead, glorifies the bodies of Christians, and takes those Christians—soul and body—into heaven forever. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, so you, too, will rise. Just as Jesus gained the victory over death, so, too, will you. Your last enemy to be conquered is death, and your victory in that battle is guaranteed by the One who won that battle first, your Savior, Jesus Christ.

With the eyes of faith, can you see it, Christian? Can you see that victory? Saints, see your triumph coming! God defeats your enemy, Death.

I stood in his living room, his hospital bed pushed up to the large picture window, tubs of gauze and ointments and medical gadgets all around him. Cancer was slowly claiming his life. He could no longer speak, but he could still scratch out short messages with a pencil and pad of paper. As I stood there with him for what would be the last time I saw him alive on this earth, he wrote, “Death is my friend.” Friend? How could such an unstoppable force be his friend? Because he knew what his Lord and Savior had in store for him. Triumph! The triumph of a life in heaven without a cancer-wracked body. The triumph of life after the resurrection on the Last Day in a cancer-free, glorified body with Jesus forever. That’s what Jesus has promised you. If it’s not cancer, something else will get you. But it doesn’t matter. The victory is yours! Saints, see your triumph coming! May your Lord Jesus make you confident of it! Amen.