Zephaniah: The Lord Your God is in Your Midst
Tony Schachle
Minor Prophets | Major Messages • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsDid you know that God rejoices and sings over His children? God spoke this promise through a prophet by the name of Zephaniah. If you’ve never heard his name before and could not find his book in the Bible without going to the table of contents first, you are not alone. Zephaniah and the book the bears his name are considered part of the minor prophets of the Old Testament. The minor prophets are the twelve books at the end of the Old Testament. They are called minor prophets because of the length of their prophesies, not because of the importance of their messages. These books contain major messages from God that are important for us to study and understand. Zephaniah is no exception. This book contains very important prophesies about repentance and restoration and the future Millennial Kingdom. In today’s message, we will unpack the prophesies in Zechariah and learn what it means that “The Lord Your God is in Your Midst.”
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Did you know that God rejoices and sings over you? God spoke this promise through a prophet by the name of Zephaniah. If you’ve never heard his name before and could not find his book in the Bible without going to the table of contents first, you are not alone. Zephaniah and the book the bears his name are considered part of the minor prophets of the Old Testament. The minor prophets are the twelve books at the end of the Old Testament. They are called minor prophets because of the length of their prophesies, not because of the importance of their messages. These books contain major messages from God that are important for us to study and understand. Zephaniah is no exception. This book contains very important prophesies about repentance and restoration and the future Millennial Kingdom. In today’s message, we will unpack the prophesies in Zechariah and learn what it means that “The Lord Your God is in Your Midst.”
SCRIPTURE
SCRIPTURE
14 Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.
16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak.
17 The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
EXEGESIS
EXEGESIS
Who Was Zephaniah?
1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
He was the great-grandson of King Hezekiah (Godly king of Judah).
He prophesied during the reign of Josiah (Godly king who began at the age of 8).
He was a contemporary with Jeremiah.
He prophesied approximately 25 years before the Babylonian Captivity.
Here is Some of the Word God gave Zephaniah to Speak to Judah:
2 “I will utterly consume everything From the face of the land,” Says the Lord;
3 “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the birds of the heavens, The fish of the sea, And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked. I will cut off man from the face of the land,” Says the Lord.
God is going to send judgment upon the whole earth.
Dual Fulfillment.
There are Two Main Reasons Why God is About to Send Judgment: Idolatry and Complacency
Idolatry
4 “I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, The names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests—
5 Those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops; Those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, But who also swear by Milcom;
6 Those who have turned back from following the Lord, And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.”
7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; For the day of the Lord is at hand, For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.
Their pagan gods.
Modern Idols:
The god of Materialism
The god of Covetousness
The god of sex
The god of alcohol and drug addiction
The god of climate change
The Day of the Lord
Used 19 times in Zephaniah
Complacency
12 “And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, Nor will He do evil.’
What does it say in the KJV? “settled on their lees”
This is an old biblical idiom but still used. It refers to the lees (dregs, sediments) of wine or other liquids that settle in the bottom of the containing vessel if it is not disturbed. Hence, the idiom refers to someone or something that is at ease, not disturbed, or worried.
They were saying:
God doesn’t care about us
God doesn’t have the power to deliver
God is not going to pour out His wrath
God Offers and Opportunity for Repentance
1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation,
2 Before the decree is issued, Or the day passes like chaff, Before the Lord’s fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you!
3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the Lord’s anger.
Before…Before…Before...
God got Noah and his family out BEFORE the rain began to fall on the earth.
God got Lot and His family out BEFORE the fire and brimstone began to fall on Sodom and Gomorrah.
And God is going to get His church out of this world BEFORE He begins to pour out His wrath on the whole earth during the Tribulation.
God has not appointed us unto wrath.
God is also going to preserve a remnant in Israel during the Great Tribulation in the area of Petra in Jordan.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
God Pronounces Judgment on the Nations Surrounding Israel
Gaza (Palestine) to the west.
Moab and Ammon to the east.
Ethiopia to the south.
Assyria to the north (Russia).
God Pronounces Judgment on Jerusalem
1 Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, To the oppressing city!
2 She has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the Lord, She has not drawn near to her God.
Here God specifies the sins of Judah in more detail.
This lets us know what God wants from us:
OBEY HIM
RECEIVE CORRECTION FROM HIM
TRUST IN HIM
DRAW NEAR TO HIM
Then the Prophecy Takes an Unexpected Turn
8 “Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord, “Until the day I rise up for plunder; My determination is to gather the nations To My assembly of kingdoms, To pour on them My indignation, All My fierce anger; All the earth shall be devoured With the fire of My jealousy.
9 “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the Lord, To serve Him with one accord.
God always provides an opportunity to repent.
God always promises restoration to those who repent.
MESSAGE
MESSAGE
After the pronouncement of judgment and wrath through most of this book, we arrive at the good news. God has promised to gather the Jews from all across the world and restore them back as a nation again in the land of Israel. And He has already fulfilled this promise. But God has also promised to remove every enemy of God’s people from the face of the earth. And that has not happened yet. That promise will be fulfilled during the Millennial Kingdom. Israel will be the superpower of the earth. And the earth will be ruled by (not a democracy, not a republic, not communism, not a monarchy) a Theocracy. Israel will be the center of the earth. All the nations of the earth will look toward Jerusalem and will come to Israel to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus will be in the midst ruling from His Throne in Jerusalem.
But there is a promise here for us too. Not just in the Millennial Kingdom that is to come. But in the here and now. There is this tension in the Kingdom of God of the already, but not yet. The Kingdom of God was inaugurated at Jesus’ First Coming and is a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of believers. And it will be fully established at Jesus’ Second Coming, not just as a spiritual kingdom, but as a physical, theocratic kingdom here on earth. But there is a sense in which we experience the Kingdom of God here and now. And one of those ways we experience the Kingdom of God now is the fact that we can say that Jesus is in the midst of us.
At least twice here in Chapter 2, Zephaniah writes, “The Lord Your God is in your midst.” What does that mean for us today?
We Can Rejoice!
14 Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
What reasons do we have to rejoice?
15 The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.
Because the Lord has taken away your judgments!
The Lord has forgiven your sins!
The Lord has washed you in the blood of the Lamb!
Because the Lord has cast out your enemy!
We’ve got victory, over the enemy!
One day our enemy, Satan, and every demonic entity will be cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity!
There is going to be a peace on earth like it has never seen before!
The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst!
O I want to see Him, look upon His face!
We will see Him as He is!
Because you shall see disaster no more!
The blood of Jesus has delivered us from the wrath to come!
What a day, glorious day, that will be!
We Can Be Encouraged!
16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak.
17 The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
The Mighty One Will Save!
The Lord our God is a Mighty Warrior!
He will fight for us!
He will save us!
He Will Rejoice Over You With Gladness!
The angels in Heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents!
The Lord rejoices over you when you come to Him!
He Will Quiet You With His Love!
He will calm the troubled waters of your soul!
His love is our peace!
He Will Rejoice Over You With Singing!
Have you ever thought about God singing?
God has written a song about you!
He rejoices and sings over His children that come to Him!
ALTAR CALL
Repent:
Idolatry, and
Complacency.
Revive:
Obey Him.
Receive Correction from Him.
Trust in Him.
Draw Near to Him.
Rejoice:
The Lord has taken away your judgments.
The Lord will cast our your enemy.
The Lord is in your midst.
You shall see disaster no more.
Remember:
The Mighty One will save.
The Lord will rejoice over you with gladness.
The Lord will quiet you with His love.
The Lord will rejoice over you with singing.
