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How does the world relate to Christians, and how are Christians to relate to the world? Daniel's experience as a Jew exiled to Babylon and caught up in the life of that pagan court is an instructive example. More of that in a minute.

But it's useful as we think about Daniel's experience to put it in the context of what Jesus says about engaging with the world. In John 17, on the night before he dies, Jesus prays for his followers. You might like to turn to that. In that prayer, Jesus makes clear six things to do with the relationship of believers to the world. You can see them there on the outline. Let me run through them quickly.

One. What differentiates believers from the world is that they have heard God's word. That's how they know Jesus. The world is deaf to God's word, so it doesn't know Jesus. So Jesus says in John 17.14:

I have given them your word …

Two. The world hates believers.

Three. Believers do not belong to the world.

Both of those are in the rest of John 17.14:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Four. Jesus has sent his disciples into the world. John 17.18:

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Now Jesus is praying here in the first place for those first disciples who were with him that night. But he's not only praying for them. John 17.20:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word …

That's us. This prayer is for us. Jesus has sent us into the world.

Five. God protects believers. John 17.15:

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Behind the world's hatred of believers lies Satan the great enemy of the gospel. But Jesus asks his Father to protect his people from Satan. What Jesus asks, the Father gives. Jesus' prayers are always answered with a 'yes'. So we can take this not just as a prayer but as a promise. God protects believers. And he does it through his Son. So at the end of chapter 16 Jesus encourages his disciples to be realistic about what they face, but confident about the outcome, with these words:

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

Six. The world will get to know about Jesus through believers. In John 17.21 Jesus prays that believers …

… may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

And that is exactly what has been happening for two thousand years. That small band of original believers turned the world upside down.

So that's the framework in which believers operate in the world. What divides the world from believers is the Word of God; and knowing Jesus through that Word. The world hates believers. Believers don't belong to the world. Jesus has sent believers into the world. God protects believers. The world will get to know about Jesus through believers.

If Jesus really is the Son of God, then the challenge to us as we hear Jesus praying in this way for his disciples is to ask ourselves whose side we really want to be on. Do we want to be at home in the world and an enemy of Jesus? Or will we believe in Jesus and stand with him against a hostile world? None of us can avoid these blunt questions. It's as well to face up to them now, lest the world get a grip on us again and we no longer hear the voice of Jesus calling us to himself.

Now, in the light of all that, I want to make three points, with reference to Daniel 1. They are there on the outline. So:

First, THE WORLD WORKS TO GET CHRISTIANS WORSHIPPING ITS OWN GODS

Daniel is a classic example of one of God's people under persecution. At times that persecution is open and violent. So eventually Daniel is literally thrown to the lions. And of course the very reason Daniel is there in Babylon is that Nebuchadnezzar beseiged Jerusalem and carried off its people into exile. Daniel was among them, as a young man, and found himself living at the heart of an empire that was hostile to his faith.

Not that God had somehow lost control of what was happening to his people. The main lesson of the Book of Daniel is that God is always in control of everything, and is working out his purposes. Daniel 1.2 says:

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into [Nebuchadnezzar's] hand …

Jesus sends his disciples into the world. God sent Daniel to Babylon.

But that's not how Babylon saw it, and Babylon was determined to crush the faith out of Daniel. Not that they would have put it that way. They just wanted Daniel and his friends to be useful to them, serving their purposes and not causing trouble. And if you're a believer, that's how the world thinks of you. Just be like them, and do what the world wants you to do and the world won't give you any grief at all.

So Daniel was put through a programme that was designed to assimilate him. At this stage it was all very friendly. First Daniel was selected for special treatment because of his promise and potential to be useful to the Babylonians. Then the process of educating him in the language and literature of the Babylonians was begun. What a powerful tool an education system can be for making sure that the minds of believers are conformed to the world! Then his diet was prescribed. Then his Israelite name was changed to a pagan name, and Daniel became Belteshazzar.

All this adds up to a powerful programme of assimilation. "Make him like us; reeducate his mind; teach him our ways; seduce him with the pleasures and riches of our way of life; and he will forget his God and serve our purposes." That is the way of the world with believers. And Daniel wouldn't have faced any pressure at all on account of the faith that he once had if he had simply gone along with all that, and allowed his identity as a believer to be swamped and finally to disappear.

That is the pressure that the world puts on us as believers. As long as we're prepared to compromise and finally to lose our Christian identity, we won't face any pressure at all. Going with the flow produces no resistance at all. It just destroys our faith.

Jesus says that the world hates his followers. But of course, that's not how the world sees it. The world's hatred is generally well hidden, well under the surface. Sometimes it does erupt in open hostility with no restraint at all. A book like 'Killing Fields, Living Fields' about the experience of the church in Cambodia over the last hundred years gives us an idea of what that's like.

But most of the time in the West nowadays, everyone likes to think of themselves as tolerant. The world's hatred is mostly hidden even from itself. But it's still there. And the one thing that the world will not tolerate is the public communication of faithful biblical and apostolic Christianity.

There's a clear example of that in the situation that Franklin Graham has faced with the cancellation of all the venues for the meetings of the Graham Tour this summer. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Organisation say that in the course of their long history this has never happened to them before. That in itself is a measure of how far own culture has moved from the gospel and the Christian faith. The opposition, in essence, has been on the grounds of objection to the biblical, apostolic gospel. It seems clear to me that if the apostle Paul himself were the main speaker on this evangelistic tour, all the venues would be cancelled for him too. The bishop of Newcastle has publicly added her voice to those of other objectors. Franklin Graham has been treated quite disgracefully. But that is how the world treats apostolic faith.

So how can believers respond? There are three possible routes. And that is my second point.

Secondly, CHRISTIANS CAN EITHER SUCCUMB OR WITHDRAW OR ENGAGE

It really has to be one of those three. So faced with pressure from a hostile world, believers do one of those three things. Daniel was faced with the same set of choices.

One option was to succumb. He could simply have said "yes" to everything. Gone along with it all without question. Lapped up the education. Relished the food. Wallowed in the wealth. And ceased to be a believer at all. No doubt he could have kept some semblance of his religious past. He could have chosen the Hebrew Scriptures module in the comparative religions course. As long he didn't try to argue that the Hebrew Scriptures were the truth and the pagan religions were not. He could have had his wedding in church. As long he didn't try to insist that sex outside marriage was a danger to individuals and society alike. They wouldn't have minded a veneer of the old religion. He just shouldn't believe it and live it. Succumb to the pressures. That's the easiest option of all. And the deadliest.

The second option was to withdraw. That can be attempted in two ways.

The first is to withdraw into the mind. Keep matters of faith private. Believe it; but believe it in secret. The trouble is, because God is Lord of everything, there's only one way of keeping faith secret in the long term, and that is by compromising it. So withdrawal becomes surrender after all.

The second way to try and withdraw is to withdraw into a ghetto. As far as possible make church your whole life and have nothing to do with the hostile world. Leave the world alone in the hope that it will leave you alone. Many of us try this.

This, too, is an option with great attractions. But this, too, is fundamentally flawed. For one thing, it's disobedient to God so it cannot be done without compromising the faith. For another thing, it simply cannot be done. We cannot help being involved with the world. This side of judgement day we are in the world unavoidably, just as Daniel was in enforced exile. Return to Jerusalem was not an option for him. Our Jerusalem is the heavenly Jerusalem, and we won't be going there this side of death or the return of Jesus.

Then the third option is to engage with the world. Face up to the reality of the situation. Recognise that the whole world belongs to God and it is not wrong to be in the world. We should be serving the world, in the right way. But be in the world without being of the world. Be ready to be distinctive, whatever the consequences. And that will inevitably mean drawing a line. It will always mean standing out from the crowd in one way or another.

Daniel knew that. He was glad to be of service in so many ways. But on God's terms, not on the terms of the Babylonians. Daniel 1.8:

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

That's where the rubber hits the road. That's where the demands of Daniel's faith begin to engage with the demands of the world. Daniel knew it had to happen. But he didn't shrink from it. For him, the issue was food. Mind you, from then on, he was a marked man. Refusal to be steam-rollered in one thing is clearly and rightly read by the world as a refusal to be steam-rollered, full stop. Suddenly the world has to reckon with your faith. It becomes public knowledge, not only that you have a faith, but that your faith makes a difference.

Then when that happens, the tables are turned and it's the world that begins to feel the pressure. Which is my third and final point.

Thirdly, JESUS SENDS HIS FOLLOWERS INTO THE WORLD TO INFLUENCE IT

That brings us back to what we learned from the prayer of Jesus. The world will get to know about Jesus through believers. But they have to be believers who neither succumb nor seek to withdraw. They have to be believers who have resolved, like Daniel, to engage with the world, and who carry their resolution through. Is that us? That's the question. Is that us? Here are a few simple rules of engagement for those who resolve to be different for the glory of Jesus and for the sake of the gospel.

First, know what we believe. Resolve the fundamental issue of allegiance in your mind and in your heart. Who do we belong to? Is it Christ, or is it the world? We need to get that straight now, before more pressures are brought to bear to make us succumb.

Secondly, get involved. Don't even try to withdraw from the world. Quite the opposite. Get your hands dirty serving the world in the name of Christ. Whether it's in schools, or politics, or the media, or the health services, or business, or among friends and family, or in clubs and activities and organisations: get involved.

Thirdly, be vigilant. Don't underestimate the lengths to which the world will go to destroy our faith. Sometimes the methods will be open and obvious. Sometimes they'll be subtle and seductive. But don't underestimate the underlying hatred of Christ that there is in the world. Forewarned is forarmed.

Fourthly, at the right time, take a stand.

Is this regards, we need to think like Franklin Graham. He said recently:

God hasn't called us to be quiet. He's called us to preach … I don't believe in backing up. I don't believe in conceding an inch … God has called us to preach and that's what we're going to do.

Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to be different.

And then fifthly and finally, trust in God's protection. I read a report of a tornado that tore through a small Australian town. It was so powerful that it sucked a family of five, including a 17-month-old baby, out of their home and dumped them in a field. The baby was sucked out of its high chair, through a window and into a paddock fifty feet from the house. The baby landed in a haystack. It was unharmed.

God does not prevent us from getting caught up in the fierce winds of the world. He sends us into the world. But he does protect us. We may not feel secure, caught up in the tornado of the world. But we are. We too, will land in a haystack, so to speak. We need to trust God. Jesus sends his followers into the world to influence it. We will not be overcome. Jesus has overcome the world.