The Prophet Zephaniah 3:6-20 [NLTse]
“I have wiped out many nations, devastating their fortress walls and towers. Their streets are now deserted; their cities lie in silent ruin. There are no survivors—none at all. ⁷ I thought, ‘Surely they will have reverence for Me now! Surely they will listen to My warnings. Then I won’t need to strike again, destroying their homes.’ But no, they get up early to continue their evil deeds. ⁸ Therefore, be patient,” says the Lord. “Soon I will stand and accuse these evil nations. For I have decided to gather the kingdoms of the earth and pour out My fiercest anger and fury on them. All the earth will be devoured by the fire of My jealousy.
⁹ “Then I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the Lord together. ¹⁰ My scattered people who live beyond the rivers of Ethiopia will come to present their offerings. ¹¹ On that day you will no longer need to be ashamed, for you will no longer be rebels against Me. I will remove all proud and arrogant people from among you. There will be no more haughtiness on My holy mountain. ¹² Those who are left will be the lowly and humble, for it is they who trust in the name of the Lord. ¹³ The remnant of Israel will do no wrong; they will never tell lies or deceive one another. They will eat and sleep in safety, and no one will make them afraid.”
¹⁴ Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! ¹⁵ For the Lord will remove His hand of judgment and will disperse the armies of your enemy. And the Lord Himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! At last your troubles will be over, and you will never again fear disaster. ¹⁶ On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, “Cheer up, Zion! Don’t be afraid! ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
¹⁸ “I will gather you who mourn for the appointed festivals; you will be disgraced no more. ¹⁹ And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you. I will save the weak and helpless ones; I will bring together those who were chased away. I will give glory and fame to My former exiles, wherever they have been mocked and shamed. ²⁰ On that day I will gather you together and bring you home again. I will give you a good name, a name of distinction, among all the nations of the earth, as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Sermon
This reading from the prophet Zephaniah may be a strange one to sit around-together here a week and a half before Christmas, but there’s a method to my madness (so they say) and I hope you’ll stick with me. You see, I want to proclaim to you that I believe there is a plot to destroy the joy and wonder and good tidings of Christmas going on around us. And I want to point out this insidious plot and make it known to us all so that we can – together – acknowledge it and stand against it!

Perhaps we’re all familiar with the pressures that have been put on many of our government offices across our nation and the nations to stop placing scenes portraying the birth of Jesus on government properties at Christmastime. Perhaps we’re all familiar with the pressures that have been put on many cashiers and sales associates to keep them from wishing shoppers a “Merry Christmas!” Perhaps we’re all familiar with the intentional replacement of Christmas carols with more secular Christmas songs in shops and stores across our nation and the nations, and, perhaps, we’re all familiar with the growing trend towards “Happy Holidays” and Merry X-mas” leaving out the word and name of Christ…

This plot I’m speaking to you about started with all these things, but they are just the Prologue – the opening skirmishes – in this war, in this drama, in this plot that I believe is working itself out around us to destroy the joy and wonder that surround and accompany the good tidings of the birth of Christ Jesus of Nazareth, God With Us!

The new Star Wars movie is coming out this weekend: Movie #7 in the soon-to-be nine movie series. (Though, perhaps now that Disney’s running the show, there will be more.) Any Star Wars fans in the church? …

I’m a big Star Wars fan, as many of you know. I don’t walk around quoting Yoda or dressed up like a stormtrooper (as many die-hard fans do) but I’ve seen all the movies and read most of the associated novels.
For those of you not so familiar with Star Wars, it all happened “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Space ships keep people and trade connected to planets across the galaxy the way tractor trailers and container ships keep people and trade connected to cities and across nations here on Earth.

There’s a group of super-powered men and women and boys and girls called “Jedi” in Star Wars. Jedi are able to tap into the energy of the universe to enable them to be super-fast or super-strong or to predict future events, and they have set themselves up to be the peacekeepers of the galaxy.

When the first Star Wars movie came out back in 1977, it was the middle trilogy, Episode 4, and there were only two Jedi left: An old man named Ben Kenobi and a green, pointy-eared alien little-person named Yoda. It was Ben Kenobi’s job to safeguard a new generation of Jedi led by young Luke Skywalker, and it was Yoda’s job to train them.
When Episode 1 came out in 1999 that trilogy had to show the transformation from a galaxy filled with Jedi down to the galaxy fans had gotten to know in Episode 4, a galaxy where only two Jedi remained.
As you can imagine, a group of men and women and boys and girls who can tap into the energy of the universe to be able to fight in superhuman ways and even know the future, would be hard to beat!

But there’s a line out of one of the books associated with that first – Episode 1-3 – trilogy that has always stuck in my mind. It’s from a book called “Shatterpoint”, and it’s about a Jedi master named Mace Windu who’s probably the best fighter among the whole galaxy of Jedi. He’s wondering about all the changes that have been brought about by the civil war that has been raging around their once peaceful galaxy. And Mace asks himself, “What’s the best way to undermine and cripple a group of men and women and boys and girls who were raised for peace, knowledge, serenity, and harmony?” And he answers himself, “Such a group is undermined and crippled when you force them into the bloodshed, chaos, power-mongering, fear, and stark necessities of war.”
That’s the plot I see seeking to destroy the joys and wonders and good tidings of Christmas. It has nothing to do with a science fiction group of superheroes, of course. I’m talking about how you undermine and cripple a group of men and women and boys and girls who were made new to live lives of thanksgiving, peace, joy, faith, wonder, love, and the hope of everlasting life? As I look at the course of world events, and those events that have been occurring in various areas of the globe across the past two thousand years, I think, you come against them with terror, uncertainty, confusion, busy-ness, and hatred, all the while seeking to focus their attention on the realities and utmost importance of this life alone.

I believe that the devil and his evil crew have stirred up al-Qaeda, Isis, Vladimir Putin, and other terror-groups and local tyrants in order to tempt us towards worry and fear and in the hopes of stealing our joy and wonder. It is of critical importance to the expansion and strengthening of the Kingdom of Heaven across the face of the Earth (at least as much as is in our power) that we not give in to worry and fear, but that we grow in faith and acts of gracious love.

Which brings me back to our reading from the prophet Zephaniah, and the picture of shepherds being confronted by God’s angel and the armies of Heaven that we’ve been looking at across Worship this morning. Let me start with the shepherds…

Angels throughout the gospels assure those they visit not to be afraid. An angel visits Mary and tells her not to be afraid, that she’s going to bear God’s Son. An angel visits the shepherds in Bethlehem and tells them not to be afraid, that the Messiah has born. And thirty years later an angel appears to the women who come to Jesus’ grave that Sunday following His crucifixion and tell the women not to be afraid, that Jesus has overcome death.

What’s huge about these specific instances of angels telling Mary, the shepherds, and the women-coming-to-Jesus’-tomb not to be afraid is that the Bible uses the present, middle, second person imperative form of “don’t be afraid” each time. I know that’s a Greek thing and might not make sense to you, but, what that means is, the angel was telling Mary, the shepherds, and the women not just to not be afraid, but he was telling them in the strongest language – basically ordering them, “Never be afraid again!”

“Never be afraid again!”

The great news about the birth of Jesus the Messiah – the Son of God, the heir of King David’s throne – creates a new kind of person, when that person puts their faith and trust in such great news. It creates a person who never has to be afraid ever again. The great news about the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah – the Son of God, the heir of King David’s throne – creates a new kind of person, when that person puts their faith and trust in such great news. The reality of Emmanuel – God With Us in Jesus Christ – does not keep fearsome events from happening across the face of the Earth: For those first Christians Roman soldiers would keep acting like bullies, life-threatening storms would still rise up, kings would continue to casually slaughter the newborn children in a given town, etc…; and, in our day employment can lack security, health concerns can seem on the rise, and terrorists can randomly kill and publicly execute people. But by faith and trust in Jesus Christ – the One Who is King over all earthly kings and Who is Lord over all earthly lords – we are a “fear not” people, a “never be afraid again” people!

And Zephaniah 3 shows us how.

In vv. 9-13 the prophet says, “I will purify the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the Lord together… You will no longer be rebels against Me… There will be no more haughtiness on My holy mountain… The remnant of Israel will do no wrong… and no one will make them afraid.”

So, to live before the Lord under the lordship of Jesus Christ without fear, the Lord calls us to repentance: That is, to turn our lives around from doing the things that are popular and allowed out among non-Christians to be about the things that the Holy Spirit calls us to in the Word of God, the Bible.

So… What is in your life that God doesn’t want there, according to His Word in the Bible? Do you have a habit in your life or a pattern in your life that God speaks against through His commandments or His prophets or the gospels or letters of the apostles? Offer it to the Lord. Lay it down – picture yourself taking it out of your life and laying it down – at the foot of Jesus’ cross. Acknowledge that it’s been a sin in your life, ask His forgiveness for all the ways it has hurt Him, hurt others, and hurt you, lay it down at the foot of the cross, and then leave it behind, asking for the Holy Spirit’s grace to truly leave it there.
We cannot know the fullness of the peace and protection of the One Who came to put sin to death if we have an, “O well,” attitude toward sin and are still playing around with it ourselves. It’s not about being perfect, but it is about repenting and wanting to get rid of anything that would stand between us and Jesus…

Vv. 14-17 of Zephaniah says, “Sing, O daughter of Zion… Be glad and rejoice with all your heart… And the Lord Himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! … With His love, He will calm all your fears…” Zephaniah is calling us to live in the presence of the Lord in worship.
If we want to enjoy the fullness of God’s calming all our fears, He calls us to repentance, and He calls us to know that He is always with us by the Holy Spirit, and to worship Him daily and throughout each day. Not just Worship on Sunday mornings and other opportunities the church gives, but worshiping at work as we think of Him, smile, and give Him thanks and praise; at school, worshiping in class and in the halls when we need a friend, and we remember the friendship we have with Jesus, and enjoy His company and companionship right there up and down those halls; at home, driving the car, out with our friends, humming His songs, thanking Him for the good things He does and gives, confident in and enjoying the reality of His presence with us always!
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Enjoying freedom from fear comes from enjoying the constant presence of the One Who fears nothing because He is master of everything and all else! Nurturing the reality that He is always near, letting those around us know of His presence with us, and worshiping Him throughout the day also nurtures fearlessness in us, even when the forces of darkness seem to be screeching and circling all around us.

Lastly, Zephaniah 3 vv. 18-20 speak of the gifts the Lord wants to give to us: “I will gather you… I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you… I will save the weak and helpless ones… I will give you glory and fame, you who have been mocked and shamed… I will bring you home… I will give you a good reputation, a good name…” God is calling us, through Zephaniah, to receive the good gifts He has for us!