Let's all turn in the scriptures to Zephaniah. Zephaniah is where we're at today. I said our English pronunciations of them are probably not all too accurate. My guess is that if we were ancient Hebrew speakers, We would say his name something like Zofenia. Zofenia. Almost like the end of Pennsylvania. Zofenia. But we totally Americanize it and go for Zephaniah. It's all right. This is the ninth of 12 minor prophets. through whom the Lord chose to reveal himself. And what we discover today should, again, be life-shaping. What I want to do is just give a few historical facts like I have, and then we're going to spend a good chunk reading Zephaniah. And then I want to end by showing how awesome and applicable it is. So just a few historical facts. The first is this. The Bible that Jesus would have known would have had one book called the 12. Jesus would have carried the scriptures called the Tanakh. We would call it the Old Testament. It had a slightly different arrangement. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. And in the Prophets, there was one book called the 12, or the Book of the 12. It was a single book comprised of 12 relatively short books. They're minor in size. That's why we call them the minor prophets. Second fact, these are the least familiar books in the Bible, and the best way to approach them is to understand how they fit in history. So I've showed a variation of this timeline every week. You can see where Zephaniah fits in just before the southern kingdom is decimated. So Israel's greatest moment of strength was centuries before with David and Solomon, the United Kingdom around 1000 BC. In the days of Solomon's sons, the kingdom was split into North and South around 900 BC. Over the next three centuries, both Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom would eventually weaken, they would progressively weaken and the northern kingdom would be decimated by Assyria with its capital in Nineveh in 722 BC and the southern kingdom would eventually be decimated by the Chaldeans. They are sometimes known as the Babylonians. Their capital was in Babylon. They would be decimated by Babylon in 586 BC. Having that basic framework of Israel's history is really helpful for understanding who these men were talking to and what events they were talking about. Third set of facts I want to give is about Zephaniah himself. Zephaniah, you look at him in the first verse and we're given his lineage, his ancestry. And if you look, we're given four generations going back, ending with Hezekiah. That means that this prophet was in the royal family. He was King Hezekiah's great, great grandson. The second thing to note is his father's name is Cushi, or we might say of Cush, or the Cushite. That's really interesting. Let me point out two quick references here at Zephaniah 1.1. Look just over at chapter two, verse 12, where Zephaniah prophesies God's judgment coming on the Cushites. Out of all the people surrounding Israel, he zeroes in on the Cushites. Look then at chapter three, verse 10. Blessing is gonna come from the rivers of Cush. It's really interesting that of all the neighbors surrounding Israel, he picks four or five, but one of the ones that he picks both in his prophecy of judgment and in his prophecy of restoration is Cush. And his dad's name is Cushi or Cushai. It's been suggested, I think with good reason, that Zephaniah is a black man. It's probably his grandfather may have entered into a marriage alliance with a woman from Cush That's the modern region of Sudan, so that his father was called Kushi, or he is the Kushite Jew, Zephaniah's lineage. Third thing to note is in verse 1, again the first verse of the book, is that he prophesied in the reign of King Josiah. So he probably ministered right around the same time as Habakkuk, whom we studied last week. He is writing to the southern kingdom long after the north was decimated, and he is warning the southern kingdom that they're about to be decimated themselves by a different kingdom. So now with those few facts, I want to read Zephaniah, and we're gonna dip in at various portions through these three chapters. We begin at verse two, where the Lord says, I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I'll sweep away man and beast. I'll sweep away birds of the heavens and fish of the sea. And the rubble with the wicked, I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth, declares the Lord. I'll stretch out my hand against Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He moves from universal to specific. And he goes on to describe the idolatry of Judah and Jerusalem. Verse four, he says they worship Baal. In verse five, he says they worship the stars and Milcom. They would have worshiped these ancient gods thinking that it would lead them to business success. So God promises to decimate this kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem because of all this idolatry. But it's critical to recognize that he moves from universal to specific. In a way, he's saying that the specific is somewhat foretasting the universal. We're going to see it again a couple times. Zephaniah counsels in verse 7, be silent before the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And on the day of the Lord's sacrifice, I'll punish the officials, the king's sons, and all who array themselves in foreign attire. Probably, wearing foreign clothes would have been a way of saying we're trusting foreign armies and we're worshiping foreign gods. But notice the sacrificial imagery. This is gonna be the day of the Lord's sacrifice. It's grotesque. A slaughter's gonna happen. An offering's gonna be raised. And it's only in this way that the justice of God will be satisfied. Wow. Verse 14. He describes how Jerusalem is going to be full of wailing. The great day of the Lord is near. Near and coming quickly. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter. It's a bitter sound if you were to hear it. The mighty man cries out loud. He says in verse 16 it's going to involve distress and anguish. Verse 17, look at the middle of the verse. It's all because they've sinned against the Lord. That's why their blood is going to be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth will be consumed. Whoa. He moves from specific to universal again. We get the idea that Jerusalem's downfall to Babylon is a foreshadowing of something that's gonna happen to all creation that opposes God. Now some of you may get to this point in Zephaniah and you may be thinking, this sort of retribution's in the Bible? I'm not sure I like this. And if that's where you're at right now, I have a few words of counsel for you, okay? The first one is gonna be very direct. And that is, whether or not you like something does not make it true. We live in a generation where people think if they feel something, it must be true. That's not the case. We can imagine God to be whomever we want him to be, but the only question that matters is who is he? Who has he revealed himself to be? That's the only way we can know our God. We don't get to create him. We can, but it would be wrong because we can't fashion him to be whatever we want him to be. He is who he is and he's revealed himself to us through Zephaniah among many others. The second thing I would suggest is I think you need to recognize that we live in a culture that minimizes selfishness. That minimizes the seriousness of selfishness. And it's really helpful for us to just get reoriented when we come to the Bible to say, I exist for God. And when I live any other way, whether I go after this God, this God, or this God, when I live any other way, God takes it as treachery. I am living contrary to the reason I'm given breath. It's serious. Further, we need to recognize that chapter one isn't all there is in Zephaniah. I want you to notice the first few statements of chapter two. This is where the Lord gives these people that deserve judgment, commands to change, repent so they can avoid judgment. We need to keep that in mind too, that God is revealing the horrors of coming judgment to keep people from that, to keep people from going there. Verse one of chapter two, gather together, yes, gather, oh shameless nation, before the decree of judgment begins, before the decree takes effect. before the day passes away like chaff. That means like you've seen chaff, you know, separating chaff from wheat, the shells from the kernels. You throw it up into the wind and the wind just carries it away. That's how God speaks to us about our day of opportunity for avoiding judgment. You have opportunity right now, but your opportunity is like getting thrown up into the wind and it's about to pass like chaff in the wind. Seize the moment. You can avoid judgment if you will respond right now. That's the message. Before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord. Seek the Lord all you humble people in the land who do his just commands. Seek righteousness or seek to do what's right. Seek humility and perhaps you may be hidden or shielded on the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord's anger. And then Zephaniah, after saying there's judgment coming, avoid it by turning to the Lord. He then looks out on Israel's neighbors, and he describes the decimation that's going to come on several of Israel's neighbors, even while a small remnant of Jews will survive. Look down at chapter 2, verse 5. He describes the Philistines to the west. He says, the Lord is determined to destroy the Philistines, and in verse 7, a remnant from Israel's tribe Judah is going to eventually be blessed and own that land. He says something similar to Moab, Israel's neighbor to the east, in verse 9. And then, like I pointed out earlier in verse 12, to Cush, and then to Assyria in the north. Look at verse 15, where God describes Assyria's sin. This is the exultant city, the city that boasts that it's so strong and secure, that said in her heart, I am, and there's no one else. That is blasphemy. Assyria, of course, is speaking the name of the Lord. saying, I'm the one who is responsible for my own life. I'm the one who exists. I have the power of my own fate. I'm strong, and it's all because of me. That's blasphemy. But I wonder, you look at verse 15 again, have you ever thought something like that in your heart? I'm secure. I'm strong. I matter. I deserve to be liked. I deserve to be looked up to and honored. I matter. I dare say every one of us has said it a thousand times. May just be a passing thought, may have never been crystallized, but this is the air we breathe from the time we're born. In chapter three, the Lord again speaks through Zephaniah to warn Jerusalem of coming judgment. Look at verse one, he describes Jerusalem's crime, verse two, her refusal to be corrected, her refusal to draw near to her God, which describes Israel not only in this final generation, but Israel through the centuries. I think verse two is a summary of Israel's history. God tried to correct them constantly, and they just kept saying no, no, no. God describes how he gave them repeated opportunities to repent, but they kept refusing. So he says in verse 8, chapter 3, verse 8, my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger. For in the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed. You see, he moves again from specific. Jerusalem is going to face punishment to universal. It's there, after verse eight and the beginning of verse nine, that Zephaniah's content changes. It turns on a dime. It changes, as one commentator says, from doom to hope. The people, verse nine, are gonna worship God with integrity and devotion. They're gonna be humble, verse 11. Verse 13 says they're never gonna sin again. Here, Zephaniah is anticipating the work of Jesus. to forgive sin, to change hearts, something that has begun and will be brought to completion when Jesus recreates this planet. So Zephaniah ends verse 14. Look, look at verse 14. Sing aloud, Jerusalem. He tells people to sing right now. Sing. Shout, Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. We might say, You need to right now be happy from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. Every ounce of your being be filled with joy because this is going to happen. Verse 15, the Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He's cleared your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall never fear evil again. On that day, it'll be said to Jerusalem, fear not, O Zion. Let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty savior. He's gonna rejoice over you with gladness. He's gonna quiet you with his love. He's gonna exalt over you with loud singing. The last two statements are just incredible. We'll come back to them. Zephaniah ends on this note of hope. In the last few verses, he's basically saying there's coming a day where there's going to be no more disgrace, no more oppression, no more distance from God, but instead there's going to be healing and joy and honor, like our first song where he said, Praise him, you who can't speak. Stand up, you who can't walk. Jesus is gonna fix everything that's wrong in creation. Shout for joy. That's the way Zephaniah ends. Wonderful. Now, Zephaniah's wonderful. We need to understand both sides to have an accurate view of God and to accurately apply it to our lives. I'd state the main point of Zephaniah something like this. What the Lord did to overthrow Judah is a preview for what he's going to eventually do to the entire creation for its rebellion. What the Lord did to Jerusalem, to the southern kingdom of Israel, back in 586 when he decimated it like he promised through all these prophets including Zephaniah, is a foreshadowing of something that's going to take place universally in the future. And those who humbly repent will be shielded from God's wrath and experience singing celebration after sadness. Those who humbly repent will be shielded from judgment and they'll experience musical celebration after sadness. Go deeper. I want to dig deeper into what I would see three facets of this message. The three facets would be the judgment that's coming, the humility that's demanded, and the celebration that's promised. I want to go deeper into those three facets and work them out, applying them to our lives. And we'll wrap up with a new song. The first point is this. You must realize that judgment is coming on Earth. you must realize that judgment is coming on earth. The judgment that God announced for Judah, he kept saying it from specific to universal, from universal to specific. In other words, this is a preview, this is a foreshadowing of universal judgment he's gonna bring on the world. The reason for the judgment is human waywardness. We must read Zephaniah 1-2, And not simply think that's history, that happened. It's past. We must not think that way. Zephaniah 1, 2, he announces as a spokesman for God, I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth. This is a foreshadowing of something to happen in the future. Let me give you three references. Jesus and his apostles spoke very similarly. Jesus promised that before his coming the heavens would be shaken. Life as we know it on earth is going to be altered. Peter Nearing his own death, reminded Christians, the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements destroyed by fire, the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. This isn't just Zephaniah past events. They're rightly understanding that the events that Zephaniah was immediately previewing or prophesying, it was previewing something worse to come in the future. Or John, in Revelation, climactically sees, in chapter 16, seven angels who will eventually pour the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth. He's actually echoing Zephaniah. God gave us Zephaniah so that we would be certain that God's just judgment is coming on earth. And so that we would see Jerusalem's decimation as a preview of it. Secondly, to be shielded from the coming judgment, you must humbly repent and draw near to God. To be shielded from the coming judgment, you must humbly repent and draw near to God. You might read about Judah's violence, Judah's idolatry and selfishness, the reasons for God's coming judgment, and you might think, whew, I am glad I'm not that bad. when in fact you should think, oh no, I'm in trouble. Have you ever been violent to someone with your words? You've hurt someone with your words? Have you ever known what God wants you to do and done the exact opposite? Not really caring about God's words, but instead just saying, I don't want to think about that right now. When Paul explains the reasons for God's wrath coming on humanity in Romans 1 to 3, he says God's wrath is falling on people who have poison tongues, they have feet that walk down the wrong path, and they have eyes that don't really care about what God thinks. Don't look at Jerusalem's violence and idolatry and resisting of God and think that's them, thankfully it's not me. It is us. We're only right with God if we have first come to see that we deserve his wrath. We deserve his judgment. That's the starting place. When we come to realize that we do in fact justly deserve God's wrath, we have to realize that he warns us of coming judgment to save us. He's not telling us of this coming judgment simply so that we will say, I'm hopeless. He's warning us of this coming judgment so that we will respond and so that we'll get right with God. If you read Zephaniah and think, phew, God is so mean, you'd miss the whole point of the book. The reason he's describing the future is because he's filled with kindness and he wants to save. This is the heart of our God. He's revealing this so that we would respond. Now I have four references listed there and I want to review them just very quickly and piece together an understanding, maybe tie together a knot that helps us to see Zephaniah's understanding of salvation. Zephaniah 1.7, you remember, that's where the Lord describes his coming judgment as a sacrifice that will satisfy his justice. The second reference, Zephaniah 2.3, this is where he counsels very directly. Seek the Lord, do what's right, humble yourself, and God will shield you from judgment. Chapter 3, verse 2 is the third reference. This is where the Lord explains that Israel should have trusted him, should have drawn near. That is a term that in the Old Testament you would have understood to be temple language. You draw near to the Lord with a sacrifice, the sacrifice that he commands. The way to draw near to the Lord is through offering the sacrifice that he commands. And then Zephaniah 3.15. where the Lord says, those who repent and draw near, he will remove judgments and he will live forever among them. You put those four little pieces together and you say, I think we can come up with an understanding of Zephaniah's concept of salvation. I put together that little puzzle and it looks something like this. God's wrath can only be exhausted by an offering. Justice will be satisfied either by the punishment of sinners or by the punishment of a substitute If you want to avoid judgment and draw near to God you want to be reconciled to God you must humble yourself Admit your waywardness and trust that God gave Jesus to be punished as your substitute We're gonna see that Zephaniah didn't understand that as clearly as we do because we wear New Testament spectacles and He didn't see it as clearly, but he saw it. We're gonna see that here as we get to the third point. Committing your life to Jesus is the only way for you to hope to be shielded from judgment. God is speaking this book so that we would be shielded from judgment. And we need to realize that either, as it were, will be the offering that satisfies the justice of God. or Jesus was the offering, and he took our punishment in our place. We need to flee to Jesus. We need to trust in Jesus, rely on Jesus. Zephaniah is leading us to humble ourselves, say, I'm under judgment, fully deserving of it because of my self-centeredness, and Jesus is my only hope. Commit yourself to follow Jesus. Devote your life to Jesus. This is where Zephaniah is leading. Third facet of Zephaniah. If you have drawn near to God through Jesus, you must anticipate the musical celebration. This is where we go to the last chapter, the last half of that chapter, beginning in chapter three, verse nine, where Zephaniah begins to describe the new covenant era, the era in which everyone who devotes their lives to Jesus, the substitute, will be forgiven of all their sin, cleared of all judgment, will be given new hearts that want to obey. That age that Zephaniah forecast, that age has begun with the king's first coming. That age has begun, but it is not yet finished. Eventually, every one of Jesus's followers, every one of us will be rescued from the fall, body and soul. As William Cooper put it, we will be saved to sin no more. God's gonna complete the work he's begun. And Zephaniah focuses on the celebration that's coming at that finish line. The celebration that's coming when the war is over, when all of God's judgments on earth have passed and all of God's people are together. He's focused on the finish line and he's saying at that finish line, there's going to be singing. It's going to be celebration. I want to point out two facets again. Zephaniah 3.15 and then 3.17. I pray that as we think about these verses, that we are gripped in a life-changing way with awe over God's glory. It's what we need. God help us. Zephaniah 3.15, the king of Israel, the Lord, will live in the middle of his people. That statement's amazing. Israel will be forever governed or ruled by a king who will not only be a human descendant of David, it will be the Lord himself. Zephaniah understood this. I think it's likely that that phrase, the king of Israel, is actually what Nathanael is quoting when he talks to Jesus. Jesus is calling him to be a disciple. And Nathanael asks him these questions and Jesus says, yeah, I was with you when you were having your devotions. And Nathanael says, you are the king of Israel. Your God become human. You're his chosen king to rule on earth forever. It's John 1 49. The second statement, the Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He's your mighty Savior. With his love, he'll calm all your fears. He'll exult over you by singing. This is what life in the future for everyone who's shielded from God's judgment will be. If you take refuge in the Lord Jesus, there is celebration and joy ahead. And it's with this image. that I really want us to conclude, I want us to seize on. Let's park here. Everyone who follows the Lord Jesus will one day live in his presence. The man Jesus will be walking and living with us. He's alive today, that changes everything. He's coming again. That changes everything. We're going to be with Him face to face. That changes everything. And on that day, we're going to be completely cleansed from our sin. We're going to be perfectly renewed in body and soul. And we are going to be led in celebration songs by Jesus Himself. Isn't that what verse 17 says? He will exult over you by singing." This makes me think of the videos that have been taken outside Buckingham Palace there in London on VE Day. At the conclusion of World War II, soldiers had returned home. The announcement of peace was made from the balcony And then the songs and the dancing began. There were anthems, national anthems. There was jazz by Glenn Miller. There were the songs by Vera Lynn. The White Cliffs of Dover, We'll Meet Again, that had carried people through the war. And everyone is in the streets celebrating, they're laughing, they're singing, they're dancing, right in the middle of the busy streets of London. Triumph and then celebration. That's the imagery of Zephaniah and it needs to lodge deeply within our hearts. If you're a follower of Jesus, right now you're a soldier. Victory is certain. The day of celebration is coming, but it's not here yet. And you and I are called to be faithful. We're called to keep our hats on. We're called to keep following Jesus, to keep faithfully loving our spouses, to keep faithfully nurturing our children, to keep faithfully humbling ourselves when we realize we're wrong. to keep faithfully providing for ourselves and for those for whom we're responsible, to keep engaging in the hard daily grind of following Jesus. Celebration is coming. Victory is coming. Triumph is coming. Peace is coming. But it's not today. But we need to live today knowing that it's coming and rejoicing that it's coming. And it's not just that our mighty Savior on that day is going to be there. This is a kind of celebration I don't think we've ever seen. The military commander, our mighty Savior, is actually going to step up to the mic. He's gonna be the lead singer. And when Jesus steps up and sings, he's gonna be revealing the heart of God, his father for us, because our God is the God who invented music, and he loves to rejoice with music. Jesus, when he was on earth, must have danced at weddings. He certainly led his disciples in singing. And in the future, this army commander and savior of the world will himself be the lead singer in the celebrations on earth when it's finally at peace. We need this to grip our hearts. Christians, this week, soldier on with the celebrations that are coming in view. anticipate the joy that will be ours when we are laughing and dancing on literal streets on this planet. And the voice coming through the loudspeakers is Jesus's voice. Father, grip our hearts with this vision of your glory. You are fierce in judgment. And yet you are full of grace and full of joy. God, you are never in a bad mood. You're never mean. You're good, always good, only good, and even your justice is a sign of it. And Lord, you communicate the judgment that will fall so that we won't go there. I pray that everyone Hearing this message that you spoke through Zephaniah would turn to Jesus and trust that He's the substitute through whom they can draw near to you. He's the only way that their sins can be forgiven, because He bore their punishment in their place. God, be glorified as we think of you rightly. Infuse into our hearts faith so that we will trust you And keep being faithful, though your calling on us right now is hard. Help us to know that someday our whole army will be home, we'll be at peace, and you'll be leading us in joy. Amen. Amen.