And scene. Okay. Having a conversation about
Zephaniah in the middle of the dairy aisle of
a supermarket is something I never thought I
would check off my list. But we did. And the
people walking by looking at it is very strange
as we're talking about it. That a lot of you
have said the same thing. Zephaniah just seems
angry. Like he's just really mad about something.
And unfortunately or fortunately, depending on
how you want to look at it, prophets usually
were. Because one of the things that prophets
were kind of dealt with in their job and their
roles is a burden to tell the people of Israel
just how bad they were. Now, there are some of
you that, if you're being honest with yourself,
kind of are going, I wish I had that job. I would
really like to just have the Lord ordain me to
go and tell people how bad they are. There are
some pastors who think that's their job. I will
never be one of them because I've got to first
look in the mirror and tell myself how bad I
am first. And it really loses its luster after
you beat yourself up to go and try to beat other
people's up. But Zephaniah had a job to do. That's
the difference with prophets. That's what's different
with people that are called by God to bring those
things. Well, pastor, you said in your first
and second sermon that we can be prophets of
the Lord. Absolutely. But it isn't necessarily
about judgment. It's more about reconciliation
and restoration. It's our job. But Zephaniah
is calling out some very specific things. And
so now we turn to chapter 3. The title of the
sermon is Woe to Her. I brought it up first sermon.
I'll bring it now. The word woe, we can look
at that as a lot of different definitions of
the word woe. You have woe. I think I said this
first sermon. I go to Uncle Jesse in Full House.
I don't know why, but that's just something I
do. I can see John Stamos saying that. If you
don't know who that is, feel free to look it
up today. It would be a waste of time, but go
ahead. But woe could also mean something really
big. Like, woe. Like what is going on or something
unexpected or something really awkward, we can
throw that word in there. The word woe today
is not a good word. The word woe is W -O -E.
It's used as more of a pre -warning of the things
to come. Woe to that person that if they don't
whatever, then something's going to happen. Prophets
use this term a lot. Jeremiah, Isaiah. Zephaniah,
Malachi, Micah, all of them use this word woe
because it should kind of prick your ears up.
It should be like, okay, I probably should listen.
It's kind of like when Jesus in the gospel says,
either in the beginning or the end of a teaching,
those with eyes to see and ears to hear, he's
really saying, take this and go deeper. Woe to
her. Because the first thing that Zephaniah is
going to call out, and he's been building to
this, is the rebellion. of those people that
said that they love the Lord. That this is one
of the really specific judgments of Zephaniah,
and I title it today, When Rebellion Wears Its
Sunday Best. Now, I could sit down with a lot
of you that have been in church longer, let's
say 30 years, and one of the things that have
changed drastically kind of in church cultures
is, you know, pews to chairs. Again, we don't
need to bring it up, but that has been a big
change, but also how people dress on Sunday mornings.
When we were going through the 150th anniversary
in 2020 and we were getting just globs and globs
of pictures and different memorabilia of Munster
Church over 150 years, it's a long time. This
August will be 155. It's just the difference
in attire. Now, I'm not here to spread any kind
of judgment. You know, our kind of, what we kind
of say here at Munster is just wear something,
right? That's kind of the goal. It's a very low
bar, but that's what we're saying. But back in
the day, I remember this growing up, it was shirts,
it was ties, it was dresses, it was all of those
things. Mine, more shirts and ties than the dresses.
But understand that it was something different.
But Sunday best kind of carried this, kind of
this moniker, if you will, of, you know, we almost
use that to describe, how you could go to an
event, right? Oh, what is the dress for this
wedding? Oh, it's your Sunday best. That meant
something. That Sunday best usually meant some
kind of button -down shirt, knot, jeans, you
know, all of those things. And one of the things
that Zephaniah is calling out is just that. So
far, Zephaniah has taken us on a journey from
God's judgment to Judah, to a call to repentance,
to the sweeping judgment of all the nations,
what we did last week. And now in chapter 3,
the focus shifts back to Jerusalem. So we've
done the initial kind of heart punch, gut punch.
We've now gone to how this affects everybody
else. Now it's back to us. Now it's back to the
church. The city of God. This wasn't a flattering
judgment. The people who had received the covenant,
the temple, the promises, they still stand condemned.
Why? Zephaniah makes it very clear. Their rebellion
hides behind a mask of religion. That for their
dirty, dusty lives, they were masked by the tie
of their tie. Their Sunday best. They draw near
with words, but their hearts are far from the
Lord. So as we explore this today, we see God's
deep concern. Not just a fleeting concern, but
a deep part of his heart, not just for what we
believe outwardly, but also how we live. Hypocrisy
is not hidden from the eyes of God. And yet,
God's grace is not hidden from those who repent.
We're going to dive into that today. A couple
things historically, just to kind of wrap through
this minor prophet. That Jerusalem had all the
right spiritual structures, right? Jerusalem
had the temple, the priesthood of believers,
the line of Aaron, the Levites, the scriptures.
They had the scrolls. They had all the things.
But what Zephaniah is actually exposing is the
eternal rot, the injustice, the pride, the disobedience,
and the unteachable spirit. So I'm going to just
say right now, umbrella of grace. Because I think
Zephaniah is going to give both barrels to all
of us today, myself included. Despite Josiah's
reforms that were starting, this prophecy shows
that the people had not turned back into sincerity.
They've not turned back in sincerity. They were
not sincere with the God that they claimed they
loved. All right, so let's jump in. Verses 1
through 5, woe to the oppressive city that Jerusalem,
the city of God, was known as an oppressive city.
Friends, that's gross. That is a gross understanding
of how believers should live. That if we are
living just to oppress others, I think we've
missed it. And even in the Old Testament, Zephaniah
is calling this out. Let's jump in. Verses 1
through 5. Woe to her. who is rebellious and
defiled, the oppressing city. She listens to
no voice. She accepts no correction. She does
not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near
to her God. Her officials within are roaring
lions. Her judges are evening wolves that leave
nothing till the morning. Her prophets are fickle,
treacherous men. Her priests profane what is
holy. They do violence to the law. The Lord within
her is righteous. He does no injustice. Every
morning he shows forth his justice. Each dawn
he does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
Up until that last slide, I would think you would
be talking about a Gentile city. You would have
been talking about Syria or Babylon. You wouldn't
be talking about Jerusalem. But this is exactly
what Zephaniah is doing. He is calling it out.
I don't think he knew he only had one chapter
left because of the way we canonize the scriptures.
But he does. Jerusalem is being called up for
being rebellious, defiled, and oppressive. Four
major changes have gone on. From the fruitful
city of light, city of God, good things are happening.
Yahweh's name is being proclaimed. Things have
changed. So let's break it down. She listens
to no one. She listens to no voice. What does
that mean? She's unteachable. She accepts no
correction. What does that mean? She is proud.
Not proud as how proud I was of my Jack. My Jack's
double yesterday in his game. Not that kind of
pride. A little bit of a flex. But he did. It
was a great hit. This is pride in a bad way.
Because she accepts no correction. Meaning...
You feel yourself high of high, top of top. No
one can correct you. That is a very, very evil
pride. She does not trust in the Lord. So she
is faithless. She does not draw near to her God.
She is spiritually distant. Let me read those,
the four again. And again, as I kind of clench
up in conviction, I understand if you are as
well, that we are unteachable. We're proud and
not in a good way. Faithless and spiritually
distant. Now I want to reverse it. Because in
20 years of pastoral ministry, it's the reverse
that I see as people tend to fall by the wayside
in their faith. First, they feel they're spiritually
distant. Then all of a sudden, faith drops to
the floor. They become proud in the fact that
they're in their rebellion. Because God has not
smited them, God has not struck them down, thinking
God's like Zeus. And so therefore they become
unteachable. They become defensive. Whenever
a word is brought to them, they dismiss it, or
they try to then bring out their own double barrels
and shoot back. None of that lines up with the
Beatitudes that Jesus gives us in the Sermon
on the Mount. One of the things about our leaders,
her leaders are predatory. Friends, that is not
a good thing. That means that they have leaders
looking at people who are vulnerable and taking
advantage. Her prophets are reckless. Her priests
profane the holy city. So if I'm an Israelite,
if I'm in Judah or Jerusalem, if I'm reading
or hearing these words, I would go, oh no. Something
bad's about to happen because we've already heard
about some of that the day of the Lord in the
last couple things Zephaniah had said. Yet, God
is in her midst. God is in our midst. Doing no
wrong. God doesn't do wrong. We're the ones that
do wrong. Morning by morning, giving what? Justice.
Justice means when you do something wrong, there
are consequences. That is justice. Mercy is it's
not death. There's grace, there's forgiveness,
reconciliation. Sometimes the greatest danger
in our lives or in the church is not from the
world, but from spiritual complacency within
God's people. Complacency. It's one of the worst
things I think a believer can be called. You've
become complacent in your faith. How can people
call that out? You've become unteachable. You're
too proud. You're faithless. You're spiritually
distant. It kind of speaks for itself. We must
ask ourselves, are we teachable? Do we accept
correction from Scripture, from the Spirit, from
one another? Oh, I've seen this all too many
times. When people come and they want to bring
this double -edged sword to slice open a fellow
sheep, to slice open a fellow brother or sister.
You want to know why this was a double -edged
sword? To fight the flaming arrows of Satan.
Not necessarily each other, but it happens all
day, every day, even in the church. Church leadership
must be examined in light of these verses. Are
our leaders servant -hearted or self -serving?
That's been kind of a little bit of my road the
last couple weeks as one of the leaders of our
church looking at how we do what we do, why we
do what we do, and not basing our leadership
of Munster Church on assumption or the understanding
of this is how we've always done it. That there
are times to look into these things. More times
than not, it's after something happens that we
have to kind of react to it and grow and learn
from it. Oh, to be a church or an organization
that can be proactive in all things. It's one
of the things I love about a ministry of our
church that does not get a lot of play because
you don't want it to. And that's our safe church
policy. Our safe church team led by an amazing
group of people that are there for when something
happens. It's something that the denomination
instituted 20 years ago and now is requiring,
hopefully, every church by 2026. We're already
there. Little brag on the church. Our safe church
manual is actually used by the denomination to
give churches as they start their own. Whether
it's one person or a team. That you have a group
of people looking at how we make decisions. How
we do what we do. Our council also being one
of those. That it's okay to examine church leadership.
And again, I had... I'm not that good in my scheduling.
Just ask my wife and my family. The fact that
we announce our nominees today, and this is the
text. Believe me, I did not put that together.
I am not that good. But what happens when we
ignore these warnings? What happens when we,
in our pride, our faithlessness, our distance
to God, go, yeah, great, that's for somebody
else, not for me? Well, let's look at these two
verses, 6 and 7. I have cut off nations. Their
battlements are in ruins. I have laid waste their
streets so that no one walks in them. Their cities
have been made desolate without a man, without
an inhabitant. I said, surely you will fear me.
You will accept correction. Then your dwelling
would not be cut off according to all that I
have appointed against you. But all the more,
they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.
God's even saying, I'm going to do these things.
Like a parent watching their kid in some level
of disobedience going, if you touch that, you
will be grounded. Right? Or if you liken that
to, what is it, Nemo? Right? Finding Nemo? That
it's, do not touch the butt. It was boat. But,
and what does he do? He stares right at dad and
just goes, what? Right? And then he gets kidnapped.
Maybe that's the lesson, right? You disobey mom
and dad, you're going to be kidnapped. I didn't
say that out loud. That is not what happened,
okay? Don't rewatch Nemo today. But understand,
these are warnings given for a reason. God doesn't
bluff, right? He's not trying to play some cosmic
poker game. God had judged other nations as the
example, expecting Jerusalem to fear and accept
correction. I hear a lot of stories about what
my dad was like, Jim. He died again when I was
two. I don't have any memories of him. And I
always think about what that would have been
like to have a dad like that. Dan now, my mom's
husband, my stepdad, but I consider him my dad,
it never got to a point, because I was about
to start high school when they got married, it
was never kind of coming in for him to kind of
take that mantle of male leadership, headship
of the house. He didn't do that. He actually
came in and discipled Lynn and I, and that was
a great thing. So it was really the fear of my
mother, where some of you might have had the
fear of your father in life out of like a reverent
fear, a respectful fear. Mine was my mother.
Right, that I have a respectful fear of my, pretty
much still to this day, right, that it's still
there. And I think it's good. Now, she's a lot
less scary now since I got taller than her. But
understand that that respectful fear is part
of that. And what God is trying to show his people
is it's okay to fear him. It's not fear as in
the boogeyman. It's fear as in you are really
big. And in the snap of your fingers, these kind
of things can happen. I need to be in reverent
awe of who you are as Heavenly Father. But isn't
it funny that when we become distant to our Heavenly
Father, when we become faithless, when we become
prideful, isn't that when God tries to get our
attention? And the goal is not to ever get Dad
that mad, right? Like, ratcheting it up. Asked
my boys how long car rides go. Right? We saw
it even a little bit yesterday. It was like,
we didn't even get past Lansing, and I was done
with the drive. And we still had a half an hour
to go. And it's like, I got to come up with some
kind of, like, physical signs, you know, of kind
of how, like, a volcano erupts. I'm working on
it. But understand, you may have had that, too,
growing up. Where all of a sudden, Dad, all of
a sudden, would be like, and you knew to flee.
Right? You knew that. I'm seeing some people
nod. I know. I'm clocking those households. But
understand that the Bible also says that God's
slow to anger. We've already talked about this.
This wasn't, okay, you become prideful. There
you go. You're gone. That he builds up to this
what we call or should call grace. It's hard
to look at discipline as grace, but it is. When
God gives us examples through discipline or correction
or the story of others, do we learn from them?
That is the power of testimony. How good God's
grace is, but how hard his discipline is as well.
Especially for us that have gone through it.
It's not enough to see God's justice around us.
We must stop and we must respond to it with humility
and change. That God just doesn't do stuff to
do stuff. That God works all things out for the
good of those that love him, that are called
to his purposes. Guess what? That's all of you.
That's me. We are called to his purposes, and
he wants to get us there. So that word remnant,
oh, I love it. I love it when prophets use the
word remnant. This is, we see, kind of that grace
and that remnant purified, starting in verse
8. And we'll go through verse 13. Therefore,
wait for me, declares the Lord, for the day when
I rise up to seize the prey, for my decision
is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to
pour out upon them indignation, all my burning
anger, for in the fire of my jealousy, all the
earth shall be consumed. Go back to that real
quick. For in the fire of my jealousy, all the
earth shall be consumed. That should terrify
us and cause us to rejoice, but we'll get there.
Okay, next slide. For at that time, I will change
the speech of the people to a pure speech that
all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord. From beyond the
rivers of Cush, my worshipers, the daughters
of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.
On that day you shall not be put to shame because
of the deeds by which you have rebelled against
me. For then I will remove from your midst your
proudly exalted ones, and you shall no longer
be haughty in my holy mountain. But I will leave
in your midst a people humble and lowly. They
shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord. Those
who are left in Israel, they shall do no injustice,
speak no lies, or shall there be found in their
mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze
and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
So not only is this a remnant, this is the remnant
of promise, of covenantal promise, of understanding
what God desires. The Lord will gather the nations
for judgment. It will be fierce. It will be comprehensive.
But it will be refining like a fire refines.
I always say this. This is something that my
staff and my council hear all the time. That
is iron sharpens iron. It's not always done through
hugs and kisses. Right? When we have a grievance
against one another, when there's active conflict
between two people, it isn't all peacetime. It's
not all happy. Sometimes you've got to get to
the nitty gritty. But through that, through the
fire of conflict and resolution and restoration,
we grow. We become refined. So that fire that
God's talking about, so we saw what the people
were doing, why the fire came, now the fire does
something else. But from this fire, a people
shall emerge, and I love this, of pure speech.
This is a reversal of the Tower of Babel. serving
with one accord, that they would be united in
their worship, that we would be humble and meek,
the true remnant of a believer, that we'd be
living in justice and speaking truth, that we
would hold to a moral integrity of loving one
another through wrongs and through rights. So
this fire shows us a couple things as we round
third today. Our speech matters. Do our words
reflect purity, peace, and praise? Or do they
reflect our own desire for a pound of flesh?
I was wrong, so I'm going to get mine. The church
is meant to serve God in one accord. How do you
do that? With unity. Something that is cultivated
and hopefully protected. Friends, we're going
to disagree about things. That's all. It's part
of being human. But how we disagree actually
shows who we worship and what we believe in.
If it's of ourselves, then it will be about our
own name, making sure we're good. But if it's
about Christ, it's about lifting his name through
the process of reconciliation. Humility and honesty
are traits of the faithful remnants. That is
something we want to be. How are these evident
in our life together? Humility and honesty. If
we're just going to be a church that tells each
other what we want to hear, lies to one another,
doesn't really get to that truth, we probably
should just hang it up because we're not doing
much. And we're actually tarnishing the name
of Jesus. Because we believe some things. Our
confessions help us and raise up for us the importance
of these things. Heidelberg Catechism, question
and answer 122. Hallowed be your name. We are
called to live holy lives and reflect the name
we bear. Oh, this is going to hurt. I'm looking
at myself first. That if I'm unwilling to forgive,
then I probably shouldn't put Christian on my
name. That doesn't come from me. That comes from
Jesus himself. That if he says, if you are unwilling
to forgive, then you don't know me. The Belgian
Confession, Article 29, marks that the true church
include the practice of church discipline and
a sincere pursuit of holiness. Now, don't get
me wrong. There are churches that they love discipline,
like a masochist. Like they love to just discipline
people. That discipline, I talked to some of
these pastors, and it's kind of like, ooh, we
got a discipline case this week. What? I want
to stop meeting with them. I want to call the
lunch right then and there because I don't understand
that joy of discipline. But if done the right
way, discipline can be a pursuit of holiness,
not a pursuit of condemnation. Now, I've never
heard this from a pastor, and I hope I never
will, like, oh, I hope we get to excommunicate
them. But when we desire that pound of flesh,
we've already excommunicated people in our mind.
When we've shot that arrow multiple times instead
of looking inward first, we've already excommunicated
those people in our mind and our hearts. And
what Jesus says is therein lies the sin as well.
The promise of remnants with pure speech of one
accord looks forward to Labor Day weekend. When
we get into the book of Acts. That the Holy Spirit
brings this about. That the remnant, that word
again, I know, is an understanding that the Holy
Spirit is going to come and dwell with us. Think
about that for a minute. And I'm landing the
plane. Think about the Holy Spirit for a minute.
That a third of the Trinity, Father, Son, Spirit,
resides in you. resides in the church. So why
wouldn't we want to live this way? If the Holy
Spirit resides in us, and the Holy Spirit is
the one that brings about forgiveness, reconciliation,
restoration, doesn't care about our Sunday best,
but wants our heart, is advocating for our heart,
then I think we should live that way. The Spirit
reverses Babel and unites worshipers from all
nations, and the church begins. Ever thought
about that? Without Pentecost, we wouldn't be
here. Munster Church would not be here for almost
155 years. That without Pentecost, the church
does not start. And part of the Holy Spirit's
job is to remind us that Christ is the one. who
purifies our lips and our hearts. He is the true
prophet, priest, and king. And unfortunately,
what Zephaniah is saying is, Jerusalem, you forgot
about that. You have failed in keeping that.
So friends, look inward this week. Again, it
feels like a prep Sunday, but it's not. That's
next week. It's that understanding of our own
humility, our own truth. And this is going to
hurt. Our own trust. As a shepherd, it's hard
to see when trust becomes very limited with a
group of people or with individuals or whatever.
That when we can't trust people in the church,
the church suffers. But trust, if I asked each
and every one of you, is a very hard thing to
get in your life. For some of you, when that
trust is broken, there's not a snowball chance
in whatever that it's ever going to be repaired.
Friend, then you don't fully get this. I'm not
saying that that person that hurt you needs to
be on your Christmas card list. But there needs
to be grace and forgiveness. Why? Because if
not, the cross didn't mean anything. And trust
is hard. Isn't it funny that Proverbs 3 instructs
us to trust the Lord with all of our hearts,
to lean not on our own understanding, But acknowledge
him in everything, and he will direct our paths.
It's a pretty cool promise. A little four -part
sermon. Read that today. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
It starts with trust. So next week, as Zephaniah
brings this plane to a close, he's going to bring
us to some of that grace. He's beaten us up enough.
But what was he saying then and now? Well, then
Jerusalem had the trappings of religion, but
not in their heart. Her leaders were corrupt.
Her people were unteachable. God promised to
purify a remnant from among them. So what is
he saying now? It's easy to wear the label of
Christian while resisting the voice of Christ.
The church must not settle for appearance, but
seek sincere holiness, humility, and gospel truth.
God's justice refines, but his mercy restores.
Let's pray.