This is a recording of my message on Joel & Zephaniah for our Old Testament Survey series to the ABF Junior High Group.
Below is my outline for those who would like to follow along.
INTRO:
* Limbo activity. The bar doesn’t get any higher. You either submit to the bar by bending or you get hit and forced down.
* You have a choice: how you experience the bar. One is positive and one negative but the bar is the same bar in both situations.
SPOKE: (BibleProject)
* What is the central focus of Zephaniah?
* Watch: Book of Zephaniah Summary: A Complete Animated Overview
HUB: The Day
* The Day of the LORD is a past, present, and future reality. There have been days of the Lord, there are days of the Lord, and there will be one final and ultimate day of the LORD.
* It’s two sides of the coin. Deliverance & Justice or mercy & judgment.
* The Day of the Lord can be dreadful and terrifying if you are in wrong standing with God. Or it can be hopeful and wonderful if you are in right standing with God.
* The problem is: 1st: Do you even know which camp you are in? Before 2nd: You decide if you are content in the camp you are in.
* The people of Israel knew a lot about this day but unfortunately they thought about it like Jonah from last week. They wanted ONLY judgment on their enemies and ONLY mercy for themselves. They looked forward to being delivered from their enemies but what they didn’t stop to realize is that they had made themselves God’s enemies too and there would be justice for the ways they had wronged, exploited, and mistreated God & neighbor. So when the day of the Lord came in Jonah, he was disappointed that it looked like mercy on them instead of justice because they were humble and repentant before it was too late.
SPOKE: Day of Deliverance
Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:
* First this day of deliverance that they had hoped for.
* Joel 3:1-3 Deliverance for Israel
* God promises through Joel that he will deliver his people. There is a day when wrongs will be righted. When he is going to restore justice. He is going to enforce the rules.
* He says he is gonna sit down and judge those who have wronged Israel.
* Israel would sit there seeing God acknowledge the ways they have been mistreated and feel rescued.
* Makes me think of a quote from the Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, he says: Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.
* When the the Lion Aslan, the king comes, he is gonna restore order and make the bad guys pay and the good guys celebrate.
* Zephaniah 3:9-13 Purification of the Nations
* The surprising development in the prophets was that the judgment was not just on the nations and the deliverance was not just for Israel. Here we see the nations being purified, restored, and delivered too!
* There is going to be this reverse Babel. Where the people were dispersed in Genesis they will be gathered together. They are going to follow Yahweh. This would have been shocking for Zephaniah’s listener’s. The nations?? And the thing is that is us! Almost all of us are gentiles more on that at the end.
* The limbo bar is gonna come through and level the nations. Those who are proud will experience the pain of the bar. Those who submit humbly will be blessed when it passes.
* Lion King: When Mufasa dies and Simba is gone, Scar gets to do what he wants, mistreat, exploit, etc. he thinks he is in the right. When Simba comes back there is judgment and deliverance. Judgment on? Deliverance for? Do you see how they are tied up together there?
* We all know there is evil and wrong in our world. Things are not the way they should be. And I think it is the natural cry of the heart to look for God to come and make things right. To deliver us. To rescue the oppressed, broken, and hurting.
*
SPOKE: Day of Justice
Explanation/Exhortation/Exaltation:
* So it’s a day of deliverance but it’s also a day of justice.
* Joel 3:19-21 Justice on the Nations.
* Joel promises that God is going to come and judge the nations. The people who have done violence, shed blood, and sinned against God. They will be held accountable. Those who have wronged Yahweh and his people will be judged. The limbo bar is going to pass through and correct them.
* But it doesn’t stop there. It makes me think of a trial scene. Like lets say one of the big bad guys was on trial Hitler or Stalin. And they get condemned by the courts and then the judge and one more thing, YOU are under arrest for leaking information to them and being a spy. That’s what Zephaniah does to Israel here:
* Zephaniah 3:1-5 Justice on Israel.
* Can you picture them as they realize they are in trouble. Oh God noticed that too. They had been pointing fingers at those who had wronged them not realizing that other people have been pointing back at them and telling God how israel had wronged and oppressed them. The poor, vulnerable, and weak.
* Cho: We do justice because we believe our God is just. We don’t worship justice.
* After we think about the things that are wrong that we want God to rescue us from, we must in turn think about what ways we deserve justice. How have we put ourselves against God and our neighbor. How have we been the oppressor. How have we played the spy.
* QUESTIONS?
Conclusion: Gospel & Jesus
* The reality is that we are all in need of deliverance, but we all deserve judgment. We have all wronged God and neighbor. Which is why we need the gospel.
* The Exodus was a day of the Lord where egypt was judged and israel was delivered, Judges the people of israel were delivered through a judge from oppressors, Exile the people were judged for those they had oppressed.
* The good news is God has and will continue to intervene in history to make things right
* Gospel of Grace
* God sets his love on his people, they rebel, God disciplines, extends his mercy.
* Joel 2:28-32 Spirit Poured Out.
* Gentile inclusion
* Keller: Justice is the sign that you have been justified by faith. It’s not the basis, you aren’t justified because you’re helping the poor, but a heart poured out in deeds of mercy and justice for the poor is a sign that you have been saved by grace.
* Zephaniah 3:15 The LORD has removed judgment (Mercy)
* How has he done this? In Jesus.
* Our Savior
* Jesus talks about the Day of the LORD a good amount. Jesus and the Apostles understood that the crucifixion of Jesus was a Day of the Lord. That he took the judgment that we deserved and gave us the deliverance he deserved. Boom
* The return of Jesus will be the final and ultimate day of the LORD.
* LAST BUT NOT LEAST:
* 1 Cor 1:8 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ
* QUESTIONS?
* Let’s pray!
Small group Questions:
High and Low of the Week?
What stuck out from the message & video? (Respond to, Affirm, and Develop Observations)
What is something in your life specifically that is wrong and needs God’s deliverance/restoration?
What is something in your life specifically where you are in the wrong and deserve justice?
What shows the gospel of grace in Joel/Zephaniah?
What points to Jesus in Joel/Zephaniah?
Prayer Requests?
